Crista: Will you come over and feed the kitties while we are gone for a few days? I have a cat sitter coming in during the day for the wet food, but it would help if you did the night feeding. We are taking the kids to Savannah during spring break.

Mom (me): Why sure! How hard can it be, I thought. When will you be gone?

Crista: Just for a few days. And you’d need to come over just one time each day, Sunday through Tuesday. We’ll be back Wednesday. I have a sitter for the other feedings.

Her Serene Highness, Daisy

 

Me: Okay, that sounds easy enough – Tell me what I need to know.

Crista: Well, Smoky, the younger cat, tries to edge out Daisy, the older one, and wants to eat her food. He’ll eat both trays of food if I don’t separate them.

Daisy’s food has to go inside the pantry, so Smoky won’t steal it. You have to shut the door. Remember that! And don’t worry about Daisy. She won’t bother Smoky’s food at all because she doesn’t like it.

 

A demonstration ensued, and then I took an iPhone shoot of the food with labels, so I wouldn’t get the meals mixed up.

 

I also made a mental note that though they are similarly colored, Daisy is fatter, has more white on her back and a “raccoon” tail; Smoky has a blacker back and a dark tail.

The first day, all went as planned. The kitty cats behaved well and ate their dinners, Daisy in the pantry and Smoky beside the refrigerator.

More?

 

Then, after the second day, separation anxiety began to set in. Smoky, who had never been left home alone before, stopping eating and drinking, which curtailed the family’s vacation by one day. Neither the sitter nor I was able to get the younger cat to eat properly.

“Where’s Mommy?”

 

* * *

On my night table: ROAM, A Novel with Music

Nelson, half beagle-half poodle, wanders away from the home of Katey and Don, beginning a harrowing canine journey. Roam, a story of survival and enduring love, explores the strong bond between “man’s best friend” and his owners, a couple trying to cope with their very own human conflict.

Author Alan Lazar, an award-winning musician, features a soundtrack of his original music accessible via QR Reader at the end of several chapters. The novel’s theme evokes the stories of John Grogan’s Marley and Me and Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp.

Listen to Kitten on the Keys


Have you had to make accommodation for a pet (or a person) beyond what you had originally planned?

Has your pet helped you deal with stress these days? Motivated you to walk more? Pause more?

Another “pet” story to tell?