Saturday, December 08, 2007

Nosy early morning kitty

Once again last night, I slept on the office floor. That way if Lucille decided to go exploring, she wouldn't have to guess where I was. Plus, she seems a lot more affectionate in the middle of the night then during the day. Personally, I think that it's because I'm less threatening when asleep and I'm down on her level instead of looming over her.

Sure enough, I was visited two or three times last night by Lucille. Since I was half asleep I just remember being nuzzled by a purring bundle of fur. Around 6am, I decided to gradually get up while she was near. She stayed near while I was sitting or on all fours (she even hopped up on my back and clambered up to my shoulders before jumping down), but as soon as I stood up she decided she wanted some more distance.

I wandered out to the kitchen, and Lucille hid under the rolling microwave cart by her food bowls. She watched me for a minute, then retreated to under the stove. So I put the kettle on, cleaned her litter box, poured my coffee, fixed something to eat, and then re-filled her bowls. It didn't take long after I returned to the office that I heard her chowing down and then using the litter box.

Right now, I'm feeding her IAMS kitten food (hard food). I keep about half a handful in her bowl at all times and re-fill it whenever it's almost empty. Eventually, I plan on restricting that, but for the next week or so it's less stressful for her to have that available at all times. For the moist food, I switched to Max Cat Gourmet Classics Kitten Chicken & Oceanfish. The ingredient label seems to be okay. I put down about 1.5 oz at 6am and she scarfed that up first. I typically put the other half down around dinner time. And, of course, I have fresh water in a bowl that I change about twice a day.

Basically, I want her to get her fill, but I don't want half-eaten canned food sitting out for hours and hours. Eventually, I want her to consume everything within the first few hours of putting it down. Which will let me better control her weight once she matures into a fully adult cat in another 6 months.

The corn-based litter World's Best Cat Litter is expensive ($45 for a 34lb bag), but does a very good job at clumping, controlling the odor, and being easy to clean. It's not dusty and it doesn't get tracked. Plus, I'm not as worried about her ingesting a few granules when she cleans her fur. It also has a lighter mass per volume (less dense) then clay-based litter would be, so it's easier for me to pull the box out for cleaning. The only thing I need to do is find a small diaper pail that I can put the used litter into (instead of putting in small plastic bags before dumping it in the garbage). I like having the litter pan there in the corner of the kitchen under the storage shelves, that will make it convenient to clean the pan once or twice a day (I should be doing it twice).

At the moment, Lucille is sleeping away the morning under the stove. Since I have a bit of work to do, that works out just fine.

Labels: 2007, Lucille

posted by Wuphon's at 8:04 AM