Cats Cats Cats

Not to worry, dear reader. Levy hasn't flown off her rocker just yet. These are not all our cats! This photo was taken in January 2019 on a cat island in Japan. We did not own all these cats, but it was certainly a challenge not to bring them all home. The rest of this blog is written by Hubs. Enjoy!

How many cats is too many? Once you cross the threshold from having a cat to having cats, it’s all too easy to add another one to the equation. In our case, having just one cat lasted only a week. Hokke chose us while we were preparing for the arrival of Momo and so we’ve basically always been a multi-cat household. It’s just as well as we know Hokke wouldn’t have enjoyed being the only cat. That handful of days he was alone were spent looking for a friend.

We recorded his first moments in our apartment and his surprisingly vocal presence. We thought he was a quiet little guy. He’s anything but. When we replayed the videos with his cacophony of meows, his little ears would perk up and he’d go looking for the maker of the noise, unaware that he was listening to himself. Any time we brought a foster home he tried to make friends with the newcomer. I think his favorite of our temporary guests was a fellow black cat, a senior kitty called Umekichi. Ume was only with us for about a week and the old chap enjoyed being around us humans but was indifferent to felines. Poor Hokke tried to befriend Ume but without success.

Hokke and Momo share a strong bond and always have done. Momo was so young when we got him that it was mostly Hokke who taught him how to be a cat. Looking back, the timing of getting both of them was ideal. Hokke got a chum and Momo had an older brother to look out for him. Momo we think would have been fine as an only cat, he’s usually most affectionate out of sight of the others like he has a reputation to protect.

March 2015, Hokke and Momo

Aug 2020 Momo

Sunny’s sudden arrival into all our lives thankfully didn’t upset the delicate cat balance of the house. Even four years later, she’s scarcely bigger than a kitten as a full-grown adult. Her surgically-repaired eyes look huge in that tiny little head of hers. Always full of mischief, she’s a habitual button-pusher with cat and human alike. She’ll skulk in the shadows to pounce on Momo, sometimes she strikes when he’s sound asleep and rudely awakens him.

I too know how it is to be woken suddenly by a tiny tortie jumping on my chest. Most mornings she jumps on my chest and runs across the bed, meows, and then repeats the cycle until I feed her. Her response to annoying humans and cats is the same - she flops over and shows her belly with her forepaws raised up and whatever annoyance you may feel towards her just melts away. Hokke and Sunny are chummy while Momo simply tolerates her and sometimes gives the back of her ear a grudging lick.

For humans, a multi-cat household means drastically increasing the likelihood of having a cat on your lap at any given time. Working from home means I spend about ⅔ of any given day with my lap occupied by a cat. As the winter months draw in, Levy gains a cat scarf in the form of Momo draped over her shoulders. Any time a package arrives or anything new whatsoever results in a trio of inquisitors surveying the new addition. When we seemed to spend the first few months post-move putting furniture together, the three of them would gather round to make sure we were doing it right.

Cat scarves, Upstate NY 2021 w/Levy, Kumamoto Japan 2017 w/Hubs, Kumamoto 2018 w/Levy

At night the craziness begins and the three of them loudly chase each other all over the house. We call it their crazy hour but I don’t think it actually lasts as long as that. Their frantic fifteen maybe? Every so often there’s a small tussle between them, sometimes Hokke and Momo square off with Hokke loudly protesting but very gently placing a paw on Momo’s head. That usually seems to settle it and they’ll be found cuddling within the hour.

We often joke about the number of cats in the house. When two of them climb into bed with us we’ll say half the cats are present. Then I’ll say something about where the other ⅔ are and then Levy will tell me to stop as her ability to do fractions on the fly is nonexistent. But the subject of yet another cat has come up a bit of late. Dare we add another to the mix?

Written by Hubs, with the assistance of our mischievous little Sunny. Just kidding. She did not assist what-so-ever.