Foot Massage For A Head Scratch

The thing with having an infant is that the cat no longer has free range of my lap. In fact, the only time he can get some full-on lap time is when Little J is sleeping.

The funny thing is that Stitch will squeeze as much of his body onto whatever small part of my lap he can get on. Whether it be a knee cap, a small patch of upper thigh or placing his front paws stretched out on top of my knees he makes it happen.

And if there isn’t any room he improvises. For example, a minute ago I was holding Little J on my lap and perusing through Facebook. Stitch walked over, looked up and noticed there just wasn’t a chance of squeezing up on my lap. Instead, he opted to snuggle up against my toes. He nuzzled my toes insisting I give him some head scratches.

I must admit, it felt kind of nice to have some soft, fuzzy fur on my toes. The wet nose was a bit shocking though at first. But the purring that soon followed was almost massaging my feet. I wonder if cat fur helps to exfoliate in any way. I might be on to something here. It would be a win-win for both me and Stitch.

3 Ways Infants and Cats are Alike

Way 1 – They Depend on You to Feed Them
Little J is starting off on some of her homemade baby fruit and veggie mush. As soon as she is put in her high chair she opens her mouth waiting for that first bite. And she keeps opening it until I spoon in some of the deliciousness. Even more extreme, she will yell and yell at me until I nurse her. If I don’t get to her in time (because maybe I was trying to take a real shower while she was napping) she turns the real tears on and the real crying begins. As soon as I go to nurse her she makes sure to take a break from nursing to tell me a thing or two.

Stitch will meow, and meow, and meow until I go and put food in his bowl. And if there is left over food still in his bowl from the last meal he will continue to meow, and meow, and meow until I dump the old food back into the container and scoop him a new scoop. Even more extreme, if it’s a weekend morning and I decide to try and sleep in he will stalk me. He will sit outside my door until I wake up and as soon as he either senses I’m awake or he hears me moving around he starts meowing to feed him. Sometimes if the door is cracked he will sit at the edge of the doorway and stare at me. He will stare at me until my eyes flutter open in a paranoid frenzy because I can feel that I’m being watched. It’s creepy.

Way 2 – They Both Enjoy a Clean Place to Poop
Does your cat sit by the door to whatever the room his litter box is in and watch you clean it? Stitch does. He watches you with those yellow eyes as you dig around for buried treasure. He watches as you pour in the new litter. And you’ll have just stepped out the door when he tears pass the door way, bolts into the litter box and takes a big smelly one. Luckily for me I have older children to pass this frustration on to. So from my view point it’s kind of funny, but not so much to them.

Little J does the same thing. I’ll change her diaper and then a minute later she’s got that crunched up look of concentration on her face as she takes a big smelly one. I’ve gone through three diapers in a matter of 5 minutes once simply because I just apparently didn’t have the patience to wait for her to be completely done doing her thing.

I guess I can’t really blame them. I’m not a fan of using port-a-potties.

Way 3 – Trimming Nails is a Main Event
Now I’m not sure whose nails are easier to trim between Little J and Stitch. Both of them flail around. Stitch growls at me while I trim his. I always give him a treat after a nail trimming session in the hopes that he will associate getting his nails trimmed with getting a treat. For the past five years that I’ve owned Stitch this method has not worked. I still give him a treat though for simply having to put up with the duty which benefits me more than him.

Little J simply has more joints to move. She flexes her fingers, flails her feet and hands around, and wiggles her fingers. It’s a little nerve frazzling because I don’t want to cut her while doing it. But the way that she pinches at me and scrapes her nails across my skin it’s a necessity. At least she doesn’t growl like Stitch does. It makes me feel a little less like I’m doing horrible, horrible things when I’m trying to trim her nails.

This is an older photo of Stitch and Little J. But they're pretty much always together ... both fighting for a spot on my lap. (More Stitch squeezing as much of his body as possible onto whatever small part of my lap isn't being taken up by her.)

Stitch Is Not A Dog

To save money I’ve decided that I’m going to make my own baby food for my 6 month old daughter Little J. Last night she was chowing down on a concoction of pureed carrots and apples. She thought they were pretty tasty. Except she also thought it was pretty fun to spit it out once in a while to watch it splat on the ground.

I thought maybe Stitch might be interested in helping to clean it up. Silly me.

I called him but he ignored me. So I opened up his food container, scooped up some food and then dropped it back in. I know, it was kind of a mean trick to play. He eventually came downstairs from which ever room he was napping in. He took a look in his food dish and scowled at me. There was no fresh food in there.

I got him to walk over to the baby food splatter on the ground. He sniffed it and gave me the dirtiest look. I’m pretty sure inside he was saying:

“I’m not a dog you moron. I don’t eat your nasty leftovers from the floor, especially if that baby touched it.”

He then left with his tail held up high. He is obviously above eating off of the floor. I should have known. He doesn’t even eat his kibble off of the floor. And trust me when I say that there are all kinds of broken kibble crumbs around his food dish. However, he is completely fine in eating every last crumb of cat treat out of your hand. Even if that hand belongs to one of the boys or my husband (all people he is still on the fence about).

Like I said. Silly me.