Detours from home: We don’t take care of our cat, she takes care of us

[Editor’s note: Detours from home is a Rappler column where readers can share about the new things they have been doing while in quarantine. In this essay, a first-time cat mom tells us the story of how their cat is keeping the family from falling apart. You, too, can share your own Detours from home story.]

Some would think that cats are boring pets; you can’t teach them cool tricks you would teach a dog, they are not sweet or clingy, and they spend most of their time sleeping —only waking up if it’s time to eat, go to the ‘bathroom’, or have the zoomies, such that they are considered low-maintenance companions. While this is often true, on some days, an adolescent indoor cat can also drive a home crazy, especially when in quarantine. 

Luna is a female Persian feline I adopted a year ago. She is cute, cuddly, and fluffy, but she is also aloof, irritable, stubborn, and, as what we would call her at home, maldita and suplada (bratty and snobby). While I was already anticipating the quarantine given how the events were progressing in March, I can’t say I was prepared to be in the same room and breathe the same air as three more members of my family.

This exact situation, often if not always, is chaos waiting to happen, which is why it was honestly one of my concerns, pre-quarantine. Then, Luna, during a not-so-ordinary time, created a whole new level of chaos yet amazingly, also bouts of harmony, warmth, and joy to our otherwise dysFUNctional household.

“Nasaan si Luna?” has been the most asked question in our house. Sometimes it is asked matter-of-factly, most of the time, while sounding very concerned. We could not imagine losing her. Despite being spayed, which minimizes the likelihood of running away, Luna loves exploring the outside.

Our late afternoons are spent sitting in our backyard to get some fresh air; this has also become Luna’s routine after having her siesta. Since the lockdown, her current favorite hang-out has been our backyard table; a glazed ceramic floor tile as a tabletop makes the surface cold during early mornings and evenings, which is why Luna likes to lay on it a lot. 

One night, my parents, for a second, took their eyes off Luna when she was supposed to be lying down on the table. “Nasaan si Luna?” My mother cried. Now, when you are used to hearing concerned voices in the house, you may have to decide if you will take them seriously or not. But the growing panic in my mother’s voice and the countless calling of my father to her name to no avail has made me come outside to see what was happening.

No one knew where the cat was. We checked all corners of the house, under the beds, and on top shelves and cabinets should she have gone inside, and we only failed to notice. But she was nowhere to be found. Finally, I told my father to look under our neighbor’s car parked just right outside our house. And Luna was there. How she got out of the gate or what she ran after to end up under the car, we’ll never know.

“Bakit di ka sumasagot, Luna?” My mother asked while we all heaved a sigh of relief. The thing about cats is that they don’t respond to you even if they can hear you. And Luna knows how noisy our household could be, especially when we’re all together. Since the quarantine, those noises have been mostly related to her. If it isn’t my father asking if she wants to eat (again) that you would hear, it’s my mother baby-talking to her. On other days, it’s my ate calling her fat over FaceTime. Sometimes, it’s my singing ‘soft kitty’ (from The Big Bang Theory) to her or my youngest sister making her gigil sounds and squealing about how cute she is. Luna always provided comic relief to the inevitable tension that, now and then, arises at home. 

Our family gets even weirder every day watching our cat growing up. Every so often, someone would find Luna in an odd sleeping position, staring out the window thinking of how to get out of the house, or just being remotely adorable. That person would then call another, and when both are amused, they will call yet another, and this will go on until all of us are in a single spot looking at her like idiots.

The concern and attention on Luna have grown heaps since the day she came to the house. Occasionally, we would find ourselves fighting over who gets to play with her. But we would also frequently laugh together at almost every little thing she does; everything she does is funny to us.

A new day calls for a new Luna story; how she tried to go after birds she thought she could catch, how she ran so fast as soon as the front door opened to go outside, or how she made a mess out of her litter box. Stories that would be told countless times in a day, shared over lunches and dinners, and yet again to my ate in the States when she calls over FaceTime. 

There’s a true joy in living with a cat, even when cat parenting can sometimes be tough. When we wake up, the first thing we look for is Luna. Feeding her has been a shared responsibility. But taking care of cleaning the cat litter is all me.

In an uncertain time like this, when we are endlessly waiting for the curve to flatten, stuck at home with days getting shorter and nights longer (or vice versa), having a pet around provides a good distraction. Once in a while, it feels nice to take your mind off yourself, focus on the needs of someone or something else, and find yourself and your family crazily enjoying while at it. – Rappler.com

Pixy is a first-time catmom to a one-year-old Persian furbaby. She spends most of her free time reading articles about cats, shopping for cat supplies, laughing at cat memes, scrolling through cat posts, and updating her cat’s Instagram page @bellalunapersiancatteux. She lives in Cavite.