How one little fur ball takes over a household

Our new furry family member remains a work in progress. The little cat is ridiculously cute for the most part, and very friendly. It greets us like a dog would when we come home, as it comes running over, happy to see us.

The kitty loves attention and enjoys being picked up and petted.

I must thank a couple of our neighbours. They popped by on Sunday bringing armfuls of cat toys. From an elaborate scratching post to various little stuffed mice, to balls with bells in them, and a nylon tunnel, the cat has more toys than he knows what to do with. But he’s having a blast, and the toys have turned his focus away from playing with our feet and hands too often as he had in the past.

It was a good ending to an interesting first week with the cat.

Its claws at times make me think the kitten, which Mary and Brenna have named “Finn,” has seen the Friday the 13^th movies. It’s like he has little sharp metal Freddie Krueger claws. The little kitty can be patting my face with its paws in a cute manner, then rake the claws through my goatee the next, or along the edge of my ear. Nothing that leaves marks, but a move that’s sure to get me from relaxed to alert in a split second.

One morning it simply jumped up onto Mary’s head, claws extended. Who needs coffee when you have that for a jolt of adrenaline?

It loves to play. But it also likes to run the hallway and play underfoot. When we wake up in the morning, we have to be alert to that reality to avoid stepping on the little whelp.

When we first took in the cat – it came from a litter of 10 whose mother had been hit by a car – we were told it has some experience using a litter box. He had spent most of its time outdoors however.

Well, if by “experience,” that meant the kitten had walked by a litter box, it seems that would be an accurate answer. This little fur ball didn’t seem to know a thing about a litter box.

The first morning with the kitten, we put it in the bathroom with food and water, some toys and the litter box. When our daughter got home from school, she found the cat had pooped on the linoleum floor rather than in the litter box. We put the poop in the litter box and put the cat in there with it, moving its front paws to scratch at the litter.

It appears to have quickly figured out to poop in the litter, as that was the only solid waste mishap.

As for the pee element, well, the first week was an eye opener for us. It sniffed around on the bathmat as I walked by the bathroom, so I put it in the litter box, did the paw movement shuffle and waited. Finn jumped out, so I thought no more of it. But looking back in the bathroom about 30 seconds later, there it was on the bathmat, shaking its butt and peeing!

Back into the litter box it went and into the washing machine went the bathmat.

My wife next caught the little sucker as it sniffed about, and placed it in the litter box, where it peed. We all rejoiced.

But later that night, it came flying into the living room, jumped on our daughter’s beanbag chair, turned around and immediately started the butt shake. Mary got up and snagged the cat, catching it just as he began to pee. She held it out in front of her as she took it to the litter box. She didn’t understand the reaction Brenna and I were having, as she couldn’t see that she was holding a very furry water gun. OK, pee gun.

Finn hadn’t stopped peeing when he got scooped up, and continued to go, peeing straight out in front of her, as Mary walked him out of the room.

Brenna and I were shocked and ran to clean up the urine from the laminate floor.

I have to admit, looking back, we all laughed at the sight. Mary didn’t know what was happening, Brenna was worried she’d get hit by a stream of urine, and I was marveling at the pressure and amount of pee coming out from such a little kitten.

The beanbag chair, a popular spot for many a kid over the years, went into the basement for a good scrubbing, out of sight of the kitten.

The cat seems to have figured out the litter box for peeing for the most part. I caught it behind a chair where a whack of tissue paper used in gift-wrapping had fallen down. It seemed to like the sound of the paper, so it peed on it. At least it was easy to clean up. We can hope it’s the last mishap as Finn continues to settle in.

Sunday night, its first night with all the toys, was its best night with us. Finn played himself out in the afternoon, and actually fell asleep half in, half out of his teepee. That night, as Brenna worked on a school project and Mary went to bed, he hung out with me. After playing on me for a few minutes, he went back to his array of toys and entertained himself for a time, before eventually returning to me and falling asleep in my lap.