Never in a million years would the younger me had thought of bringing a cat into my life. It’s hectic enough already. But, what can I say? I love living on the edge and taking on more challenges. 🙃

Jelly Demonia

Jelly’s the first feline to join the family. She’s my daughter’s 2-year old Pusang Pinoy or Puspin. She was estimated to be about 6 weeks old when she “chose” us to be her family.

Being a noob at raising cats, I sat with the kids and had them decide if they wanted to keep her or let her go.

H was willing to take responsibility, and the rest is history, including some of my furniture. 🙃

To this day, Jelly continues to reign over us and the household. The moment she steps down and arches her back, it’s snack time. If she stands by H’s door, she expects we let her in. If she’s snoozing on the kitchen island, not even the helpers dare to wake her.

Norwegian “Norbert” Ridgeback

Norbert is a black long-haired cat we adopted from J’s brother. My father-in-law intended to sell as a stud or a breeding cat during the pandemic, but we managed to intervene before anyone stepped forward to get him.

Norbert is much more receptive to handling, likely due to his early exposure with humans. But he’s still a pretty aloof cat with no plans of being a cuddly, Instagram-able feline. He prefers to explore the outside world, and has made this need very clear through his loud meowing and door scratching.

I was planning to let J’s sister take him to Manila, but C insisted he stay with us. With his promise of being his caregiver, Norbert continues to live with us. He’s about four years old as of this writing.

Fleur Delacour

During the home renovation, I decided to bring home our first purebred cat: “Fleur”, a blue lilac British Shorthair. After doing the research, I decided on this breed because they’re great for first-time cat people.

Fleur’s one of four kittens in her litter bred by Oshire Cattery, a well-known breeder in Manila.

It took her quite a while to warm up to use because she spent her first year at my friend’s house. When we finally moved all the cats into the new house, she stayed under our bed for a good two months.

Thankfully, we kept things easy, safe, and slow for Fleur. She soon learned to explore the house, interact with Jelly and Norbert (the former wants nothing to do with her), climb up on higher surfaces, and play with us.

Valuable lessons

I honestly have learned a lot from these three bubbas. And as I continue to work on my skills as a behavior professional, it’s always valuable to work with a different species.

Although I’m not actively training the cats, they’ve taught me many things:

• Cat body language is very different from dog body language.
• You shouldn’t mix dry cat food with wet cat food.
• Cats need enrichment that meet their needs, just as much as dogs.
• Cats are more active in the evenings, so we need to make sure they get enough sleep during the day.
• Cats respond well to food reinforcement too!

Do you have cats too? What’s one tip or lesson you’d like to share with us, so we can give our cats the best life with us?