Playing Favorites Is OK When It's Furbabies, Right?

There are 2 adults in this house and 2 cats. Until this past weekend this allowed both adults to have a lap full of fur whenever we kicked back to relax. Precious made it his life's work to follow my husband around the house like a shadow. Except, of course, at mealtimes. Then he would join Butterscotch in seeing how many ways they could trip me up in order to get the food down to their level quicker. Never works, but they do seem to enjoy trying.

Friday, Hubby was on the couch and I chose to join him in the living room in the recliner. As soon as I sat down, Precious jumped up into my lap and proceeded to make his furry self at home. Well, once Butterscotch got over the shock of seeing HIS lap get stolen out from under him, he saw the spot that Precious wasn't occupying and boosted himself up to claim it. In order to occupy that spot he had to sit his butt onto the chair arm but he didn't seem to care. Neither did I. It was during this lovefest on Friday night that I fully understood how much those cats own us. Neither one of us will disturb a sleeping cat unless we absolutely have to. A situation which forced my husband to get up and get his own snacks instead of asking me to do it. Poor baby.

Oddly, since Friday night and my acquisition of a fur lap blanket, both cats have attached themselves to me instead of dividing and giving us one of our own. This is leading to me not having just one but 2 cats accompanying me if I nap, or go to bed earlier than my husband. I now must cook with 2 cats underfoot and my days of having a chance at going to the bathroom without companionship are gone. With only one cat following me in there I stood a chance, once in awhile, of privacy.

Precious is enamored, for some reason, with moving water. He likes to sit on the dividing shelf while I do dishes and bob up and down trying to figure out why the faucet is running. In the bathroom it's the toilet flushing that he has to see. I'm not sure what happens when my husband attends to his need to urinate. Not sure I care to know since at almost 70 his aim ain't what it used to be. Not even going to think about that since Precious chooses to stand on his hind legs at the bowl to watch. All I know is he waits patiently until I stand and turn to face the flush lever when he's with me, which is now almost all the time. Butterscotch was never interested in that part. For him the important thing is petting.

Rather than being an annoyance to me, this is a new situation that makes me feel a little guilty. I am not bonded to Precious in the same way I am to Butterscotch. We only have the pleasure of his company because his prior human neglected him and he got sick. He wasn't going to do anything about it so we stepped in and took him to the vet. Precious spent much of his life locked out of the house in all kinds of weather. He was loaded with ticks and fleas, had tape worms and ear mites. The end result of the vet visit was that $700 was spent getting him well. Dave had agreed to pay it back a little at a time and then changed his mind. At that point I insisted on taking him. I made sure Dave notified the vet that he was giving him away to us and we will be caring for him.

I insisted that he become ours and yet I lack that warm fuzzy feeling for him that I have for Butterscotch. He's a good boy. Goofy, sweet and endearing when he's active. Loves to play and cuddle. Has manners and greets all our company as if they're his best friends. From the beginning he showed himself to be Daddy's Baby and I was happy with that. Selfishly I think. I didn't have to bother too much with him since he seemed to prefer the company of males. It appears that is changing and I guess I'm just going to have to see if I can change with it.