Accommodating Pet Quirks

Our house has no end to the amount of quirkiness the pets exhibit. Knowing where to draw the line will help you keep what little sanity you may have left.

To clarify, our two cats and dog are pretty much free-roaming-hang-out-where-you-want-to kind of pets. To this end, yes, they are allowed on the sofa and chair-and-a-half, in the kitchen, the office/craft room, even the garage. However, I draw the line at countertops and the kitchen table. Eliminating warm, cozy places for them to curl up where I don’t want them to and making their allowed areas even more so will help curb this… somewhat. A determined cat who simply wants to sleep on the kitchen table is probably going to do so no matter what deterrents you put in place, even the old standby of crumpled up aluminum foil. To keep the sofa and chair-and-a-half as easy as possible to clean, I made seat quilts. Well, I made a pair originally for the sofa and that didn’t work out so well, so I made one to go over both seats and that works a little better, and so the pair went to the chair-and-a-half with one on the seat and one on the backrest where our cat Dexter enjoys lounging.

Another quirk of Dexter’s is that he likes to crawl through the mini blinds to sit on the windowsill. To keep this from being an issue, I’ve just taken to keeping the blinds open to his sitting level at all times. Yes, it looks goofy both inside and out, but at least he can jump up and not get all tangled up in the blinds. Yes, this has happened. No, I didn’t take a picture. He also finds it quite amusing to lay on his back in the very dark hallway and get tripped over. Our cat Tuesday on the other hand, is, well, old and doesn’t really do much of anything. Except get in our way when we are trying to work on projects in the office/craft room. I couldn’t tell you how many times I have either run over her or almost done so while rolling back in the chairs either sewing or using the desktop. She’s also howling for food by four in the morning right outside our bedroom door. Our dog Lucy, well, she pretty much thinks she’s the queen. I have to keep a tray on our chair-and-a-half to prevent her from sleeping on it and also to encourage her to either sleep on her bed or the sofa. She also wants an entourage to help her go potty if it is raining. Getting the cheese out for any reason? She’s waiting for her slice. Actually anything food related she expects to get her cut.

There are a million other things they do that annoy me to no end, but it is also those very traits that make them so fascinating. Even if they rip the ironing board cover as they fall off during a nap. Frakking Dexter.