Aren’t those the best kind? You meet, you see each other, maybe you play coy, maybe you keep your distance, but interactions over time show your personalities, your trustworthiness, your commitment. You’ve found a match.
And if you are a pet owner, you know what I’m talking about.
Growing up I was never a cat person. Mostly because I am very allergic. And how did I find out that I was allergic? I fell asleep on a friend’s bed and she had 9 cats. As I was falling asleep a few of them, most of them only kittens at the time, climbed up on to the bed and settled in around me. I fell asleep petting one of them thinking, ‘This is the best thing ever.’
About an hour later, however, I woke up and realized I couldn’t really see. My eyes had swollen up to what felt like the size of basketballs. With constantly watering eyes and drugged up on anti-histamines, I came to the sad realization that I had inherited my mother’s terrible allergies and I would never have a cat.
But I got over that pretty quickly. I thought, dogs! I’m totally a dog person anyway. Except I was also discovering I was allergic to some dogs, definitely rabbits, with a side of hamsters (but I had four hamsters anyway).
So as I’m sitting here at a cat cafe in Shinjuku, Japan, for a second year in a row – and the second cafe in the last 3 days – drugged up on anti-histamines, a black kitten is sleeping on a blanket behind my screen and I’m happily content.
Meet Hokuto @ Cat Cafe MoCHA – Ikebukuro
The first taste I got of being a cat owner was when I was cat-sitting for friends in New York. Two weeks in an apartment in Manhatten? I can handle one cat. I was fully prepared. I had duties to feed and brush her, so this is the strategy I came up with:
Complete with Asian peace sign.
When my friends checked in that night I sent them a photo of my plan. But I shall not be mocked out of a perfectly good defense strategy.
- Put on mask and place lint roller next to you.
- Brush cat with the brush moving away from your face.
- Once brushing has been completed, move backwards away from cat.
- Stand, picking up the lint roller and brush rigorously from head to toe. Remember to throw used lint roller sheet into the trash can.
- Locate the nearest sink. Work up a good lather and scrub from hands to elbow.
- Remove mask and place into a plastic resealable bag for next use.
I had this routine down pat. I didn’t even have to do this drugged up.
And every night I closed the door to my room and I was told Lottie wouldn’t want to come into my room (even though, apparently, that was her room). But at 3am the scratching started. It scared me the first night. The second night I told her to go away. The third night I was beginning to break – but no! I will not give in!
Then one afternoon, I came home after a long afternoon of shooting the skyline and fell asleep and as I woke up I saw two shining eyes staring at me beside the bed and I figured out in that moment when I freak out, I freeze. I told her to go away, but I could not fall back asleep.
Lottie aka Boog ignoring me.
That night, Lottie, at 3am, came scratching at the door just the same, but this time it opened. I shooed her back out and closed the door again. Lottie and I had an understanding – I would feed her, brush her, change her litter, but we were not friends. We would keep a good distance apart. My friends laughed when I told them what was happening and they said she just wants company. That’s why she was coming ’round at 3am, not because I was occupying her room and she secretly wanted to kill me.
So I experimented. I made sure to take my drugs and kept the door partially open – just enough that I knew she
would squeeze in and that night I woke up to Lottie jumping up on the bed and sleeping next to me. I stared at her and she stared at me. I didn’t pet her and she didn’t move closer and we fell asleep this way.
The second time I was cat-sitting, I noticed at 10pm she was coming up to me as I worked in the living room. She’d sit next to my chair, climbed up on the arm rest or just circle around. I realized after a while, she was coming to get me to go to sleep. She and her humans would sleep at 10pm and I noticed she would go to call them at 10pm and then proceed to their room and settle into their bed. She was doing the same to me and one night, she followed me to my room, climbed up on the bed and slept next to my arm. I stroked her fur as she purred and purred and I fell asleep this way. The purring was so soothing.
Baby Koshimen @ Cat Cafe MoCHA – Shinjuku
Somehow, I’d become a cat person. And as I stare at this black kitten sleeping behind my screen, I’m feeling super content and that I miss Lottie. I miss coming home to her sitting by the door or coming up to me in between naps and brushing up against my legs for some human love and then going back to ignoring me.
Ours was a slow and steady love.
Who am I kidding? She’s a cat and I’m a human can opener.
Ours was a slow and steady love.
Who am I kidding? She’s a cat and I’m a human can opener.
Lottie ❤️
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