The New Normal, Part I

 Over the course of the past month, we've established a pretty solid pattern as to how life in this house now is with five cats. 

After the tornadoes rolled through last weekend, Daisy put together the new cat tree she had ordered "to give the cats more vertical territory" in the house. It sits next to my work desk downstairs, in the corner where we used to have a large full-length mirror. It is shorter in height than the one upstairs in our master bedroom, and so I tried to introduce Sadie to it.

Apparently, Sadie, in her old age, no longer likes any heights whatsoever -- and after looking around in a concerned fashion for a few moments, figured out how to get her old, slow ass down off it and never looked in the direction of the new cat tree again. Pete was curious but apparently also unenthused when Daisy tried to introduce him to it.

Hank, Emmy, and Mable all love it.

We introduced Mable fully into the house a day or two after her "out of the bedroom all day while Daisy worked downstairs" experience, once the other children were used to her, and she has very quickly integrated into the tribe of cats. In doing so, we learned a lot about our youngest child:

1. She mostly leaves Sadie alone. She will smell Sadie or examine her when she's up and moving about, but she won't try to play with her, bat at her, or interact with her a whole lot. They'll eat together when I feed them, but that's about it. The other young cats have been like this with Sadie too, for the most part -- none of them try to "play" with her or really go after her. Hank used to hold her down and hump her (ah, teenagers...) and Empress likes to cuddle up with her a fair amount, but I think Sadie has established with all the kittens that she's old and has no desire for foolishness, so they all mostly leave Sadie alone.
   
   
2. Mable, as expected, adores Pete. She curls up tight with him, lays on top of him, he holds her and they lick each other lovingly, etc. Pete is her chosen cat companion. He's safe, doesn't chase her or growl/hiss at her, he just gives her all the love and attention she wants. He is just as sweet with her as he ever was with Hank or Empress, and Mable loves every bit of his dad energy.
   
   
3. Mable will almost always sleep with us, especially if Pete is sleeping with me or Daisy or if we're both sleeping together at the same time. During the day when I sleep and Daisy is working, Pete almost always comes to bed with me to be my teddy bear for most of or the entire day. She will join us, curling up with me and Pete. If Pete leaves, most of the time she'll stay there with me because I'm there. If Pete does not come to bed with me, she will also stay there in bed with me most of the time, sleeping in the middle between the pillows or on Daisy's side of the bed. She does the same with Daisy, though she likes to cuddle in tighter with Daisy or sleep on her chest.
   
   
4. She likes to climb things like Spider-Man or swing from the curtains like Tarzan. This is, thankfully, not an everyday thing.
   
   
5. She loves being picked up and held -- she has never once fought me on being picked up because she associates it, and being held, with love and attention. It makes her so happy and she relaxes, likes to be carried around, etc. I didn't know if I'd ever find another cat like that. 
   
   
6. She goes hard with Hank and Empress. I actually think each of them go a little too hard back on her sometimes -- she's still very much a little baby -- but they play hard and rough, chasing each other, pouncing on each other, biting and batting and running. It's all play, like there's nothing malicious to it (I've raised enough cats to know, trust me) but I am surprised how quickly Hank and Empress became wildly playful with the little girl, especially as she has a completely different personality than either of them.
   
   
7. Over the course of the past week, Mable has begun sleeping with and cuddling with both Hank and Empress -- sometimes separately, sometimes together in a big cat pile. Empress gives Mable what I call "Big Mom Energy" -- as in, her mothering instincts appear to be kicking in with the little girl. She will hold her and lick her and just snuggle in with her so happily. Hank is similar -- while the energy between him and Emmy is very much lover energy, it's very much "Big Papa" energy with Mable, similar to how Pete loves on the little girl.

Mable has also grown quite a bit -- she has doubled in size in the past month we've had her (I can't believe it's only been that long). She is innately comfortable with the entire household and we've never had to really watch her or babysit her, keep her from getting into things, etc. Daisy has made the comment that she's so very similar to Maggie in so many ways, and I think as her personality further develops, that will be cemented even more. Daisy has joked that she's Maggie reincarnated, as she was born about two weeks (approximately, anyway) after Maggie died. 

Pete had his first vet appointment with his new vet -- the one we take all the other cats to now -- and he did well, though he was anxious and frightened a bit (he usually isn't). The vet basically said he looked good for a cat his age and was about as "healthy" as could be expected given his hyperthyroidism and kidney disease. His bloodwork looked really good -- his kidney disease really isn't progressing quickly and he's responding very well to the thyroid meds (which he hates). 

Said vet also told us that Sadie will likely be fine if, while we're in Canada, our catsitters can't find/catch her and she doesn't get the medications she takes during that time. It's not ideal, but it won't kill her -- and he agreed with my sentiment that the stress and the anxiety caused by her being boarded during that time actually might kill her. So, I told Daisy to cancel the boarding. Sadie can stay quietly at home with the other cats in a familiar environment and just hang out with them as the old reigning queen of the household. 

I don't know if it's as big news nationally as it is out here, but the tornado recovery/cleanup since last weekend has been extensive. Daisy volunteered with a few other members of her workplace to assist in some of it for several hours last Friday. One of the guys from my own job lost his house in the tornado, and others were without power for days on end. Videos of the tornadoes are all over Tiktok and Facebook, as we now live in a digital age where that's possible, and they're all frightening. I've been reminding myself, daily, just how lucky I really am. One of my close friends was about...oh, a mile or so from where the biggest tornado hit, give or take. 

My brain is shot. These last two weeks at work have not been particularly difficult, but it has been very long. Last weekend was basically stolen from me by tornadoes and other severe weather alerts. This past weekend we went bowling for a Daisy work event and then were paranoid all day on Saturday because of yet even more storm warnings. Monday was the same. Thankfully nothing hit us, but we've still got several more weeks of "peak tornado season" in Nebraska. I have so much to do over the course of the next month or two and a lot of it is starting to slip my mind here and there because I've just been so exhausted, so sleep-deprived, and have not had the chance to really get downtime or rest. We have to actually do yard work and the storms and all the rain have been preventing any real time to do that, for example. Daisy tried to mow the yard the other night and it was so rough to do so with the little electric mower we have that our neighbor let us use his big powerful gas mower so she could complete the front yard, at least. She mowed the back yard and did some light trimming last night -- but by the weekend, it'll be time to mow the front again (this time it'll be my turn), and this cycle will repeat for the next four or five months. 

Of course, there's so much else we have to do before our trip to Canada as well. I have had zero time or energy to work on or finish the Great Cleansing of 2024™ and desperately just want a few days running of nothing else to do so that I can actually work towards those goals. On Sunday I was finally able to get some of my stuff organized, but the house is still a mess, all of my free time is sucked away by needing to actually get some sleep (or try to) or by social obligations -- for example, the aforementioned bowling above, and this weekend is Mother's Day -- which means we'll be focusing on Mom for a good chunk of my time off. There's only so much I can do or have energy for, and it all has to be done well before we go to Canada.