Furchild~

It occurs to me that I’m pretty sure I never introduced all of you to the third member of our household. She has more legs than anyone in here and has the biggest personality and yet, outside of mentioning her, I don’t think I’ve ever introduced her. I’m sure she will punish me with a hairball later.

You think this cute little face wouldn’t leave a gross hairball on my carpet as punishment?

Don’t let her fool you; she will.

This is Maya. The ever cute yet crazily infamous, Maya, my 12 year old (ish) tortoiseshell (or “tortie” for those in the know) cat.

She’s cray-cray. Don’t get me wrong, she’s my baby, but she’s cray.

Tortie’s are known for their unbelievably unique personalities and Maya is no different. Devon and I joke that she’s not really a cat because she hates being alone, is not nocturnal, comes when you call her, and doesn’t really chase things. She never learned how to cat. I sometimes think she’s more human than cat. She hates other animals and will not settle for anything less than being the center of attention.

The second our alarm goes off in the morning, she wakes up and starts meowing. I’m not a morning person, so yes this can be annoying because she does it non-stop for about 10 minutes. I’m pretty sure she thinks she’s the only one who hears the alarm, so she has to relay the wake up message to Devon and I. She takes a break while we get dressed/ready to leave until we’re both eventually in the kitchen. Then, if we don’t feed her in an appropriate time frame, she starts yelping (while standing next to her bowl) until one of us heeds her demands. Then she saunters off and doesn’t touch her food for at least 20 minutes after we’ve filled her bowl. I’m pretty sure it’s just her smarmy way of saying “yeah, don’t forget who runs this house, humans”.

If we’re home, she spends her day alternating between sitting with me or Devon, sitting on the windowsill looking at birds, taking power naps, and running random mad dashes around the house.

On days we’re out or working; the second one of us walks through the door, she runs to the door and starts jumping around. Not very cat-like. I told you she doesn’t know how to cat. She’s also meowing up a storm, which I’m pretty sure is just her repeating, “OMG I THOUGHT YOU WERE GONE FOREVER!” in cat-speak. Then she spends the evening alternating between me and Devon and randomly meowing/complaining when we aren’t showering her with attention because we’re both falling asleep.

When we’re reading/hanging out before bed at night, she comes in and has to lay herself between Devon and I on our bed. As if to remind us that she’s still here and we aren’t asleep yet. Once we go to sleep, she often follows suit somewhere in our bedroom. More often than not on the floor at the foot of our bed. She needs her sleep so that she can repeat the same alarm action the next morning.

Maya was my cat before Devon and I were together. I’ve had her for about 10 years. She’s my little girl and is spoiled rotten and she knows it. Luckily for me, Devon loves cats, so was all about living with a cat when we moved in together. Also, luckily for me, Maya adores him. The first night we were all in this house, she spent most of the night sniffing around him and then contently purring on his lap. All he has to do these is snap his fingers and she runs right over to him. He even calms her down better than I do, these days. I had to take her to the vet which is hopelessly traumatizing for her. She normally hides for hours when we get home. He took her out of her carrier, rubbed her back and talked quietly to her. She was calm in about 10 minutes and didn’t hide. He’s like the Maya-whisperer. And she loves her Devon.

She’s my baby. It’s insane how much you can love an animal. Even one who is as high maintenance and high strung as this little furball. Never a dull moment with her, that’s for sure. I say this, as she’s currently, hopelessly, rubbing her “scent” all over my laptop. She’s probably trying to figure out why I’m on here and not paying her any attention.