Learning the Tuxedo Way #24

Today, this morning, Tuxedo meowed and meowed. I was fast sleep, when I heard Tuxedo. I swear she said “Mama”! I opened my eyes to see Tuxedo about three inches from my face, staring at me. I was startled, but I didn’t know by what. Was it what I heard, or the fact that she was sitting 3 inches from my face and I hadn’t been aware of it?

I got up and we went through our morning routine. The bathroom routine, checked her food, and let her out the back door to the porch. I thought everything was cool. But I noticed that Tuxedo didn’t stay outside like she usually did. She kept coming over to me and meowing.

She kept this up for hours. I had to find out what was making her so disturbed. She didn’t even want to follow me into the bathroom! It was really cold outside. It was over 90 degrees three days ago. Now it was 55 degrees. That’s Boston weather. I saw that she wasn’t interested in going outside, so I closed the doors. She started wrapping herself around my legs. That’s when I saw it.

Last night, I gave her the last of her regular cat food. It wasn’t enough, so I put some of the new cat food in her other plate.  When we first went to the kitchen, I noticed that she had eaten all of the new cat food, and none of the regular cat food. So, I figured she wasn’t hungry. Did she want more of the new cat food? There was only one way to find out.

I put some of the new cat food into her empty dish. She ran to it and started to eat. Wow, it was the new cat food she wanted!  Well, hit me in the head. I didn’t hear from her for a while. She checked to see if I was in the bedroom, and then went on her merry way. I wrote down the name of the new food for future reference.

Hours ago I was out of my mind trying to figure out what was wrong with her. I went through our regular routine, but didn’t notice that she liked the new food. I wasn’t paying attention. So she was going to keep coming to me over and over and meowing until I got up off my behind and followed her reaction to our routine.

New cat food. I didn’t understand her desire. The next time I will try to be more attentive when she does something out of character. She was acting as if she was a baby crying for something. You have to go through your routine until you figure out she wants.

As I write this blog I haven’t heard a peep out of her. She is sleeping next to me, purring softly.  I love my Tuxedo. But when you say there are growing pains with a kitten, I finally got it today. Case solved!