“There’s Always Bird Watching”

I thought I’d already written a post with this title a few years back (I hadn't), but the phrase has been ticking over in my mind these past few days.

I’ve recently acquired a cat.  The family cat died just over a year ago and we’d been trucking along quite happily with just a dog, who died at Easter time this year. 

To be honest, it was far too soon to get another pet, but we wanted to get another dog around Christmas time, when people would be home with it for a few solid weeks, and I felt that, if we didn’t get a cat first we probably wouldn’t get one at all.  We’ve successfully integrated a dog into a pre-existing cat’s house-hold, but not the other way around.

Ideally, I would have waited until September to do this, but I thought we were going away at that time, so it was kind of “June-July or never”.  Now it seems we won’t be going away in September, so that would have been a possibility after all.

The plan was to get a kitten.  Preferably grey.  A few weeks ago I came very close to adopting someone’s black-and-white cat when they were in a bind, but by the time I talked the family around to it the cat had been rehomed.

So it was back to the grey kitten plan.  Instead, I came home with a 15 month old cat that is pretty much every colour except grey (well, okay, there's grey in there, too).  She’s a lovely cat – friendly, spunky, takes things in her stride and easy to get along with.  She eats simply (only cat biscuits) and uses a dirt box with aplomb.

But I’m slightly concerned that I’ve jumped too soon.  We really could have (should have?) spent the rest of this year pet free to give ourselves a break from “all that”.  I’m feeling anxious about having her in the house, rather than joyful that there’s a cat around the place again.

I’m also concerned that I’ve doomed her to a life of extreme boredom. 

At the moment, we’re got our leave worked out so that she’s got company for the first three weeks of her time here.  After that, she’s on her own for most of the day.  Every day. 

Granted, she sleeps half the day anyway (she’s a cat, after all) – but when she’s awake she likes company.  When we go back to work, there will be no one for her to talk to, and nothing for her to do.

I’ve starting to really notice how boring life must be for a pet.  I keep thinking of Rapunzel, cooped up all day in her tower, only seeing the one person – and only for a few hours every day, if that.

In Tangled, Rapunzel spends most of her time cooking, cleaning, reading and painting.  Cats don’t do any of that.  When human beings are cooped up in a confined space, we can usually occupy ourselves with something – books, puzzles, needlepoint…  What do you give to a cat?

Is it any wonder some of them just start taking apart the furnishings?

In Rapunzel’s Revenge (still one of my favourite books of all time), Rapunzel is locked up with exactly three books – one of which is titled “There’s Always Bird Watching”.  My last cat took up bird watching.  And car spotting, I expect.  She took turns staring out of every window in the house.

The current cat is starting to spend some quality time staring out of windows as well.  On the one hand, I’m hoping bird watching will be enough to keep her from going completely bonkers.  On the other hand, I wonder if we’re really doing animals any favours by giving them a life that’s safe and comfortable, but so very, very boring.

Or is bird/street watching actually more fulfilling than I’m giving it credit for?  My grandmother used to spend time sitting on her veranda just watching the world go by (and this was back when she could have gone somewhere more interesting if she wanted to), and you often see images of old people just sitting on a porch outside their house or a shop and “taking it slow”.

Just how interesting is the world outside your window, if you give it time to grow on you?