New Routines

Everyone who has ever had more than one companion animal knows that each one is unique in their personalities and routines. When a companion animal dies, their daily household routine goes with them.


I, like my cats, crave routine. My morning and evening rituals pretty much revolve around taking care of all my animal charges. When I wake up, my bed is usually filled with a few cats. But they are off the bed as soon as I am and into the living room, stretching, yawning, and scratching. After I get all the cats happy with more food, clean water, clean litterboxes, I settle down into the couch listening to my classical radio station and get online for a while to read the news of the day. When it's time to get ready for work, I move back to my bedroom and teeny tiny bathroom that is inside my bedroom.

Since he was adopted, Butterball always padded back into the bedroom with me and kept me company while I was showering, getting dressed, etc. I would always spend a little time on the bed with him either giving him loads of pats and belly scritches, or playing catch with a wadded piece of paper. Since Butterball's death in early 2008, I've gotten ready for work alone. No other cat has stepped up to the plate to keep me company. I was so lonely after a few months of this, I would go into the living room and carry a cat back with me trying to get it to stay in the bedroom. No such luck. That is, until now. For the past month or so, Chunky Lisa has been in the bedroom lying at the foot of my bed, either casually snoozing or watching me.

No, she doesn't play catch or scratch my back, but she sure does purr up a storm.