As most of you can tell by now, I love these feline friends of ours. They drive us bonkers sometimes, with their silly fights and penchant for yelling outside our bedroom (they are not allowed in). Yes, they can be such a Pain In The Arse. But at the end of the day, we are so very glad that we took the leap of faith and adopted them. Without Coco and Emi in my life, especially, I think I would have gone cuckoo after all these infertility shit. Everyone says that cats are aloof and unfriendly but I think everyone got that wrong.
So when Lady J tagged me to do a Pets on Furniture post, I was more than happy to oblige. And the onslaught begins…
The brats sleeping on our Eames (replica) chairsEmi Kat sleeping on our balcony chairA post-bath Coco sulking on our dining tableA very fat and unglamorous Emi on our sofa
No, this is not about the scam, nor is it about the story of the man who yelled “open sesame” to open a cave full of gold coins.
Rather, it’s about my Emi Kat. The not-so-little thing has learnt to open the doors in my house. These days, it’s not unusual to wake up to a house full of open cupboards because the furry fat cat has somehow wriggled her way through.
I managed to catch her in action one morning and dang if she isn’t adorable, flipping her hind legs up in the air here and there. It’s one of those things where you don’t know whether to be horrified at her audacity or laugh at her cleverness.
As I sit on my sofa typing this, Emi Kat is stretched out next to me, fast asleep. One year ago, she charmed me with her pseudo easy-going ways and I insisted on bringing her home. Husband wasn’t too keen but well, I guess it’s pretty obvious that I got my way, heh heh.
And then we took her home, only to realise that all that sitting contentedly on my lap? All that I’m a good kitten demeanour? HAH! CHARADE! If there is a feline equivalent of the Oscars, she would have nabbed it.
She HATES sitting on your lap. She chomps down on you – HARD – when you get on her nerves. She loves to jump onto the kitchen countertops despite our admonishing. She YELLS when you don’t let her into the bedroom. She YELLS when she is bored. She is so lazy that she SITS down when she is using the scratching post. She likes to sneak up on Coco from the back and take a bite at Coco’s legs. She tries to steal our food.
And. Yet.
She melts our hearts when she curls up next to us on the sofa. She loves to flop onto the floor with a loud PLOP! at unexpected times. She loves to be around us, following us wherever we go. She likes to lick our arms and feet (very OUCH!). She runs ever so quickly when she realises that THERE’S FOOD! She whines like a baby. Her little pink snout turns orange sometimes and we don’t know why. When we can’t find her, all we need to do is to shake that bag of kitty treats and she’s out in a jiffy. She is utterly, utterly, tak glam.
One year ago, on this very day, a little furball came into our home.
Oh, she wasn’t a willing party at all. The moment she spotted an escape route, she put her tiny legs to good use and powered out of the room, out of the house, and into the corridor. It took four adults to finally catch her and bring her back in. Boy, could that cat run.
That was our first glance into the cautious and wary mind of our kitteh.
We named her Coco, because she had rich chocolate stripes and also because I had recently watched Coco Avant Chanel. But it suits her perfectly and gave us the excuse to call her our Coco Beans. She seems to love it too and responds to it.
For the first few monthsthough, she wouldn’ t sleep in our presence. Her eyelids would droop and her eyes could close. But the minute we shifted or made a sound, her eyes would snap open. It was a long while before she would snooze with us around.
I wasn’t sure she would forgive us for bringing Emi home initially. She was really mad at us and refused to go near the bedrooms (where we had stashed Emi) for at least a week. One night, I woke up to find her in our bedroom hissing at her own reflection in the mirror. She wouldn’t come near us, wouldn’t let us pet her head and hid on top of the fridge.
Eventually, she grew used to Emi and went back to being the adorable little brat that we had come to love. She still swipes at you if she doesn’t want you to be stroking her fur, whines persistently outside the bedroom every day and eats my plants. But she also boinks my head with hers whenever she is in a good mood, purrs contentedly when she is simply sitting on our bed, trots out of the room when we tell her to and still waits for us on top of the oven every night when we come home.
One year ago, Coco not only came into our home, she also entered our hearts.
She is a cat in disguise, hiding under the cloak of secrecy to complete her mission.
She spies her target and watches him closely.
Watching, watching, watching…
Until the time comes for her to make her move.
After more than a month of staying in the same household with two kittens, it has become very obvious that no two kitties are the same.
We roll together
There was some hissing and sulking when Emi was first brought into the household. She was perfectly fine, had no problems adjusting, but I can’t say the same for Coco. That kitten was livid. It took about two weeks before she would calm down enough not to run away when Emi was near.
Everything’s fine now although there are still times when they would chase and pounce on each other. And it’s very funny to see their individual personalities emerge when they play, eat, sleep and do nothing.
Coco
Ah, my little Coco beans (that’s what I call her). She’s a fine Little Miss Prissy. She sits properly and primly, tucks her tail between her legs when we hold her up and never, never slouches. Between the two, she’s more cautious and guarded. When we first took her in, we kept her in the spare room before coaxing her out slowly. Initially, she was reluctant to come out of her comfort zone but gradually grew used to having the entire house as her playground. And she hates it when we have people over – she doesn’t like crowds and would hide in the room.
Her wariness doesn’t make her less lovable though. Almost every night, she would be sitting by the window in the kitchen (it faces the main corridor) and, when she catches sight of us, would jump onto her feet and start meowing loudly as if to say, You are home! I’ve missed you!
Once or twice, when I was home alone in the mornings, I would open my bedroom door to a seemingly empty house. All it took was a call: “Meow, where are you?” The darling would actually respond with loud meows! I’d find her perched on top of the fridge or curled up in the bedroom by the bay window.
I sleep
She’s really clever too. If we leave the room and say “bye bye” or “let’s go!”, she would follow us out of the room. If she wanted us to retrieve her toy from under the sofa, she would make a lot of noise and paw at the area. Sometimes, I would find myself having “conversations” with her – it’s quite funny!
Emi
My favourite story of Emi is this: one Sunday morning, I came out of the bedroom door and walked down the corridor with Emi trotting by my feet. Standing at the living room was husband, who said chirpily, “Good morning, Emi!” The cat paused, looked up at him and proceeded to roll on the floor twice. After the act, she got up and walked away, as if nothing had happened, leaving husband and I clutching our sides in mirth.
Emi is really a chill kitten. She had no qualms about coming to a strange place, took to the litter box immediately and was happy to be petted. She quickly claimed the sofa as her bed and sleeps A LOT. Funnily enough, she doesn’t meow but chirps. As in the manner of “brrrp!” And if she wanted to be heard, she would wail. LOUDLY. In the manner of, “Oh Gods of Cats! Hear my plea! I lead a miserable wretched life and hasn’t had a meal in 20 days!”
I chill
But she can be quite the attention seeker. She hates it when we go into a room and leave her outside, and she gets annoyed when Coco is obsessed with a toy and ignores her. She would start yelling loudly or, in the case of Coco, pounce on the poor dear and demand to play with her. We’ve had to grab her and pull her away from Coco more than once!
The fun thing about Emi is that she can be like a baby. We’d grab her and cradle her in our arms. She would struggle until we start scratching her head, the sides of her face and on her neck – her eyes will go soft, glaze over and before you know it, they are shut fast. She’s also a most unglamorous sleeper – hind legs sprawled, body twisted in strange ways, legs over her head.
I may just be biased but seriously, aren’t my cats just the cutest?
Yannisms 