I grew up with dogs, one dog really. A Shih Tzu/sneaky neighbor dog mix. She lived for seventeen years. She was a good dog. My wife, however, did not grow up with dogs.
She grew up with cats.
Because we've been married for almost a quarter of a century, we have one dog and two cats. Over the years I've learned a thing or two about living with cats.
I should say I wasn't completely unprepared for the cats. My mom had a few around her house, but they weren't indoor cats. I'd never had an indoor cat. And after we got our first cat (the exact date of when the cat came into our lives is still up for discussion...), we really didn't have an indoor cat.
Teewinot, named after a peak in the Tetons and the area where we got him, is such a perfect cat, except for ripping up several window screens. He has a fairly predictable schedule. He likes to hunt in the evenings. In the summer he comes in about the time I leave for work. In the winter, he comes in in the middle of the night. He'll go upstairs and sleep on one of the kids's beds and he'll stay there until the afternoon when he goes outside to hunt.
He didn't even need a litter box.
Then we got another cat and she's changed pretty much everything. Gracie was a rescue cat. She's been a great pet, don't get me wrong, but this animal definitely needs a litter box, or several. Cleaning out that box was something I never did as a kid, but I do now. The picture of the door is the cat's room. It doubles as our laundry room. Of all the people/pets living in our house, that cat has the biggest room (in comparison to her size...) than any other person/pet. Of course, to the cat, that's the way it should be.
Tonight I cleaned up the cat's room and Gracie just watched. If I clean it regularly, it's not that bad. The problem is, after I clean it, I don't want to do it anytime soon. Hence, the dilemma. I won't show you what's behind the door, but I can say it's clean now. And it will be that way until at least tomorrow. My cat chores are done.
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