My Social Media-less Life

For the past month, I’ve been pet-sitting for one person or another. I went to BlimeyCon at the beginning of August and came back to take over watching a set of dogs. From there, I’ve been bouncing all over the lower Kansas City area.

I didn’t bring that up for any other reason than to paint a brief picture of what I’ve been dealing with.

For 3 weeks, I had dogs following me around because they love me and they love all people. And there was a puppy, a middle-aged dog and an old girl… so it had nothing to do with ages. They all wanted to be with me, no matter where I was, no matter what I was doing. And if I went somewhere they couldn’t go, the pup would whine until I came back into view and within reach.

And then I came to watch cats for a week.

It’s always expected but it still catches me by surprise: cats don’t follow you around because they have some deep and innate obligation to keep you within reach at all times. They follow you around because they want to see what you’re up to. And if they couldn’t care less, you won’t be seeing them anytime soon.

In the case of these cats, they like to try to get a rise out of you as well. “What can I do to upset you?” Is a constant refrain I’m sure they’re using. Since I only get upset if they break something, they eventually settled down and left me alone.

But I also won’t take any unnecessary silliness from them either. If they’re doing something that isn’t allowed, I’ll correct them… to the best one can do with cats anyway.

And now Mr. Bentley (shown above) chooses to sit with me while I listen to music because he respects me. I know I’m not his favorite person, but we came to an understanding over the past week and he’s even slept in the bed with me a few nights to show he’s ok with me in his house. It took a few days, but we got there.

And I feel like winning a cat’s respect is one of the coolest perks you can have in life.