Prioritizing

Day 297: When I lost Tippy in early June, I had to make a decision: did I want to sacrifice my summer to raising up a kitten who would require almost constant supervision? The answer came more easily than I imagined, since a house without a cat was simply too much to bear (at this point, I'm going to make it public - I'm a childless cat lady, and you know what that means). To date, the longest I've been away from home was three hours, during which time Merry had to be confined in his carrier to keep him from demolishing the house, and he expressed his opinion of his term in purdah by attacking my leg as soon as I let him out. The legs, you understand, are what takes his mama away. Slowly but surely, we're establishing house rules. "Off!" is a very difficult concept for a four-month old kitten, as is "That's not yours." Much patience is required on my part, obviously. That said, there were certain activities I could not do without, namely getting some form of exercise. We have finally come to the point that Merry will behave himself for twenty minutes unsupervised (well, if he's already worn out from playing) while I ride the exercise bike to keep myself in shape.