Lonely Cat Seeking Tom

I can't believe it's been almost month since my last entry. Lots of things, both good and bad have happened since April but life is generally still good.

Sussie the cat has made A LOT of progress with us during those weeks and I am so pleased to say that she now not only lets us pet her but she sleeps with us on the bed too sometimes. As husband says, she's gotten used to us and she's starting to like us. Sussie really likes hanging out on the bed and calling out to us so that we'd join her and pet her so I say he's absolutely right. But sometimes, when we don't come to her or we don't show her the attention she wants, this little kitty of ours sulks.

That's right, she SULKS! She will actually walk off to the foot of the bed (if we're on the bed together) and turn to face the wall. Ha ha! I'm serious! I thought it must be a fluke when I first noticed but she does it all the time when she doesn't get what she wants! Sometimes if I'm in the kitchen and she calls out to me from the bed but I don't come despite repeated meowing, I'll find her on the bed with her back to the kitchen door ie. me (the way the apartment is constructed, one can see the bedroom and bed directly from the kitchen)

Just think that barely 4 weeks ago I was starting to wonder íf she will ever get used to us and get comfortable in her new home. But comfortable she has been and curious she is. She loves to sit by the windows and look out at the birds (the seagulls are going crazy this time of year.). Some nights, we've found her lying on the high kitchen table (it's bar stools as chairs high) or climbing the tv cabinets and of cos it wouldn't be complete without her vain attempts at reading as we find piles of books taken out of their place in the bookshelf and onto the floor.

And I must say, our kitty Sussie is a rather polite little cat. As much as she likes getting on the bed, if either me or Mathias is already on the bed, she will meow at us and wait till we say it's ok to come up before she makes the leap. And once we have made the commitment to sit in bed with her and pet her, we are not allowed to leave the bed until she is satisfactorily petted. There have been times when we leave the bed to get the remote, a book or a glass of water and the moment she realises that we're leaving, she'd swipe at us and hold on with her claws cos she doesn't want us to go. So that's when a little discipline has to come in but I also go 'Awww' cos I know she only does that cos she doesn't want us to go.

Aawwwww....

But the past few days have been a little strange. Sussie, like most cats, is a nocturnal animal and goes wild in the wee hours of the night. We've gotten used to hearing her race across the parquet floor, the tinkling of her toy ball as she plays with it and even the occasional bump as she falls from wherever high spot she had been exploring. But recently, something else has been added to those nightly rituals, something more disturbing to us, especially husband dear who is a light sleeper. Something that wakes even me, the woman who sleeps like the dead.

Sussie has been meowing, crying and even screeching a little at night, all night, with the occasional intermission between screeches. And not only that, she seems to like coming into our bedroom to do that. She'd be by the doorway and meow and cry out at us until we call her up to bed in which she happily jumps up and starts nuzzling one of us (usually me cos husband can't be bothered). And it is only during this time of petting and nuzzling that she is perfectly quiet and content. But of cos seeing that this happens at 3 or 4am, I start dozing off a little as the hypnotic motion of petting Sussie sets in and I slowly stop petting her. When she realises that she's not getting anymore petting, she jumps off the bed and is quiet for maybe another 10 minutes before it starts all over again. Husband has resorted to shushing her (I've never heard anyone shush a cat before) but surprisingly it works! Not for very long but for 5 min after being shushed, Sussie remains calm and quiet.

So that was how it began 3 nights ago and we wondered if maybe she was just getting more affectionate with us. But then she started doing it during the daytime as well and sometimes would meow so loud we couldn't hear the tv. But then yesterday it hit me!

We had gone back to the cat shelter last weekend to pass them some new pictures of Sussie by the window and to update them on her progress. We found out that Sussie's sister, Alana, still wasn't adopted out yet cos she's still so anti social and afraid of everything. But we also found out that she had been sterilised just a few days before cos she started to get in heat and was getting into fights with other cats so they had to do an emergency sterilisation on her even though she isn't 1 year yet.

Sussie IS IN HEAT!!

Oh my! All that screeching, meowing and how she loves it when we rub and pet her by her back legs next to the tail now made sense! The people at the shelter told us that once she gets in heat, to send her to the vet ASAP cos female cats are not the most pleasant creatures to be around when they're in heat. No wonder Sussie is so restless nowadays and craves company and attention.

Yesterday was Labour Day so we could only make the call to the vet today. In order to get a decent night's sleep, we took the drastic step of shutting all the doors leading into our bedroom. I felt sorry for Sussie but it was in the best interest of all. Especially husband's sanity. All that shushing in the middle of the night can really drive one crazy. Ha ha! Of cos the cat didn't understand why we shut her out and we heard her meowing like crazy at first and even scratching at the door but surprise surprise! she calmed down after a while and meowed less than previous nights.

So all this time, our poor Sussie was just lonely and in heat.