PUBLISHED: 02-02-09

Brett and butter

The cat's meow

For the past few months, my nightly routine has been to turn my stereo on to a playlist I’ve made especially to make me fall asleep. For 30 minutes, a selection of songs progressively gets slower and slower and eventually lulls me to sleep. But recently, those ethereal and sleep-inducing sounds have been replaced by incessant purring and meowing.

I adopted a kitten.

Now, a 4-month-old kitten rubs his face against mine and climbs back and forth from one side of the bed to the next in the early morning hours begging me to get up and play. While I still play my tunes to get me to sleep, he’s a little needy and doesn’t like some other noise claiming all my attention. He doesn’t even like me clutching the pillow next to me, so he nestles himself under my arm and falls asleep next to me. Or, like the other morning, he falls asleep on my head and woke me up by rubbing his paws into my hair. Who needs a comb when you’ve got a cat to fix your bed hair?

For some, I think it might be surprising to hear I’ve adopted a cat. I have a bad rep for being a little selfish, but now I have something that’s teaching me a lot about being selfless.

Since having my kitten, I seem to be channeling my mother and have become a paranoid pet parent reading up on kitten care and freaking out about every little thing. I’ve had a lot of gerbils, guinea pigs and my brother had a rabbit growing up, but I’ve never really had to care for something other than myself.

Now, I worry about him when I leave the house in the morning for work and feel bad when I go out. I hope he’s warm enough and will have enough toys to amuse him while I’m not there for him to attack the drawstring of my hoodies or my shoelaces as I tie them while getting dressed. He even got a cold in the first few weeks I had him and started sneezing.

Taking him to the vet, I felt like a new parent asking, “Why is my baby sick?” Who knew cats got to indulge in that tasty bubblegum medicine we took as kids, too?

I have pictures of him taped to my computer at work just like if he were my kid. I try to spoil him as much as possible. Although he has all the necessities already-a scratching post, plenty of toys, a litter box, carrier, a comfy bed and more-I’ve found a website that offers the cream de le cream of cat furniture, apparel and toys. I’ve always said I wanted a kid just so I could dress it like a little hipster baby, but I think putting my kitten in hoodies and trendy looking sweaters might be overkill-or maybe not?

The furniture this site, TheSophisticatedCat.com, offers is amazing. It’s like the Crate & Barrel for everything cat. My friends told me if I were to get one of the items they sell-a cat stroller-they’d abandon me. But when I almost bought the $195 designer bed, I remember I have to pay rent, too, and he’s probably not as picky as his owner.

At least he’s got a brown and orange argyle collar that matches his sweet digs.

So if this little guy and I can survive, who knows what’s next. Maybe I’ll be walking a little kid in a stroller in time to come. But I won’t push it-cats can live for a long time.

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