Constant Adjustments

Ever since Tigger showed up at our front door on a rainy Monday night, our life has been a series of adjustments.

I honestly thought it would take a lot longer for my wife to come around to the cat living indoors with us. The original plan was to just to offer food and water and let him spend his days outdoors. So we ended up buying a little shelter that he went into once. It still sits outside the house – perhaps waiting for the next lost animal to show up.

It still meant taking time to add food and water to the bowls. We did keep a garage door open to offer him some shelter if needed but it would be closed at night. Then, we had a cold, rainy day and he spent all day sleeping on one of the patio chairs we had in the garage. So we pivoted to letting him stay outside during the day but putting him in the garage at night.

That required the addition of kitty litter and the process of cleaning it out every day. Add that to the list of things to do. It also meant trying to corral him at night (cat treats worked well). At some point, we decided that keeping him in the garage when we were going to be gone for a bit was a good idea because (a) we wanted him to have shelter and (b) we didn’t want to leave the garage door open.

That lead to some comic moments because cats don’t always do what you want them to do and he’s much faster than we thought. Also, we ended up buying some night lights for the garage since there isn’t much natural light and we didn’t want to leave the overhead lights on. Another purchase we might have reconsidered if we knew how quickly he was going to end up inside. But since I now arrive back after dark on days I have lessons, it is kind of nice to have some light in the garage.

Now, he’s inside but shut away at night. More adjustments to our normal day as we now have to include putting the cat to bed. And the mornings need time to let him out, clean the litter and give him breakfast. Haven’t quite reached a new equilibrium but it is getting closer all the time.

I’m sure the cat is not worried about the adjustments that have been required. He just finds new places to sleep and then meows for attention from time to time. He does purr all the time so at least it seems like he is grateful to be in from the cold.