4 Things I Learned That Will Make Your Cat's Transition Easier

Meow, prrrrrr...Hi, it’s Sam the Cat...

If you have been following my story, you know that I finally became an inside kitty cat.   

Now, let me remind you that I have been roaming outside my entire life so this transition may have happened with a few bumps in the road for me and my new most favorite human, Donna.

Let me explain:

1 - My first confusion was the litter box.    

I mean I used it quite well when I was held up in the upstairs bathroom while recovering from being neutered.   All I had to do was jump in,  do my business, and jump out.    Not much different from going outside except that I had to leap up a little higher.

So, one day I was sitting in the den and I saw a big large bag.     hmmmm, I figured it was for me and all..so I jumped in, tinkled, and jumped out…. right, isn’t that the drill?…

Well, later Donna found it and seemed horrified.   She took it away and proceeded to clean it.   I also heard her say, “no, Sam, not here!"  

Needless to say, I was feeling a tad confused…

Then another day, I saw the pantry door open in the kitchen..so, I decided to check it out.    Do you know what I found in there?    I big ole basket sitting in the floor.  It looked oh so similar to my litter box downstairs.   I thought, well, she has a box up here for me too so I don’t have to go downstairs to pee.   How nice of her….  

Well, I jumped in and peed, then jumped out of the basket.   Donna didn’t even see it!  Ha, I figured I was good.

I proceeded to do this a couple of times over the course of a week or so…until one day…..

Yep, you guessed it, Donna found it and went a little crazy on me.  She started sniffing everything in the basket and pulling everything out onto the floor.     I think she ended up washing and/or throwing away most of what was in there…  She was mumbling something about smelling cat pee ….

hmmm, at this point I’m thinking I made some boos boos with my assumptions of just jump in and do my business anywhere….  then, I remembered that litter box downstairs,…perhaps, I’m only supposed to go there to pee??    I don’t want to keep upsetting my human so I finally “got It” and only went to pee in that special box downstairs that was beside my food!    

And from what I can tell, this has made Donna a much happier human!

2 - Sharpening my claws

Okay, now when I was outside, everything was free game for me to scratch on.   A guy had to keep his claws in tip-top shape you know.   I never knew when the next challenge for authority would be and I needed to stay primed and ready.

I just assumed the couch and chairs in the den were for me too.   

Well, as soon as Mom saw me take to her sofa, she jumped up, ran over to me, tapped me on the nose and said, “no”!….then, she picked me up, and took me over to some strange looking post on the floor.   After sitting me down, she propped my front paws on the post.

prrrrrrr, I thought a minute about this and decided maybe I was supposed to scratch on this post instead of her furniture.

Then, suddenly, I started seeing these posts all over the house.    

Got it!    

She even comes up to me and scratches my sides while I'm scratching on the posts.   It’s a win-win for both of us!!   My human mom is the best!!    purrrrrrrr, “making some biscuits now…."

3 - Getting into good graces with Grey and CJ.

Okay, Grey and CJ are the resident cuties that I need to try to make friends with…

In the beginning, I was pretty shy.   I just walked around them very slowly and didn’t make any sudden moves.    They seemed to accept me okay I guess.    I mean, neither ran up to me with loving hugs but I’ll take “okay”… better than I got from Cheddar and Patches!

So, one morning, I was feeling really playful and decided to run up to CJ to see if she wanted to play with me.  

Big mistake!  

She squealed at me much like a human girl would.   It was quite piercing…  She scared me to death.    She took a swat at me too…yep…she caught my right paw and ripped it pretty bad. 

Here's a pic of that little diva cat...yep, that sweet little face tried to rip me to shreds!!   meow......;

I bled and bled and bled all over the den floor.   When Mom saw all the blood, she immediately thought that I had injured one of her girl kitties.    She ran to them and checked them both.   No blood on them… then, she checked me...yep my paw was pretty bloody.     It’s an understatement to say that I learned that day that I could not run up to them wanting to play.     The two girls were definitely not feeling it.

Grey even stopped using her litter box because she didn’t feel comfortable around me… this caused our human mom to create another area for the girls' litter box.   And she has worked really hard to keep me out of their room!     I guess now that I look back, I was a little too bold and forward with them..   and standing guard at the litter box and not letting Grey in was probably a little mean on my part… okay, I do admit that… I was a bit of a stinker...

I’ll have to say, it’s been a bit of trial and error getting to know them.   Grey seems to tolerate me a little better than CJ.     

We are all settling into a new way of living together too.    Donna does a pretty good job of managing our spots and letting us have together time and much needed time apart!

4 - Eating

You know, when I was out in the wild, I had to eat when I had the food available.   I ate as much as I could when I could because I had no idea when and from where my next meal would come.

All of this changed indoors.   Mom seemed to put out food twice a day right on schedule.    I wasn’t worried about gaining weight or losing my figure… ha, no way.    I was going to eat!    I even ate up the girl’s food too…tee hee hee...

Well, apparently, this wreaked havoc on my guy figure.    I did gain a bunch of weight suddenly but I don’t think it was all my bad eating habits.   I maintain that some of it was hormonal too…that’s right, they had me neutered after I was an adult so I think this threw my body into mass confusion!   That’s my story and I’m sticking to it anyway….  meow….

Now, Mom has stopped filling up my continuous feeder AND shut me down from sneaking into the girls’ room to steal their food…

Go figure…well, it’s was fun while it lasted…

Now, I’m on some crazy indoor “weight control” cat food… blah, blah, blah

So, now that I have learned some lessons the hard way on becoming an indoor kitty, life has become a bit easier inside.  

I will always have my challenges with the girl kitties, especially CJ...because I love, love, to chase them sometimes...  especially when I’m all rested up!

Until next time peeps…  I’ll bring you a funny story I’m sure from my next indoor experience...

Prrrs and Rubs,

Sam The Cat

P.S. - Check me out hanging around the house.... can you say the good life??

Want to see Sam's full story?   Read How I Became The Best Blogger On The Planet, 3 Sad and Scary Things That Happened to Me, and Why My Life Was Looking Grim Before A Miracle Happened to get the complete story!

Do you think I'm loving my new life?

     Let me know what you think below...