Saturday 5-25-2024

I’m FINALLY figuring out ways to streamline keeping the back bathroom clean without working myself to death. (The back bathroom is where our newest family member, a cat we’ve named, Jet, lives when not interacting with us. I have her food bowl, water, bed, kitty litter box and other supplies in there.)

I’ve been moving supplies out of the various places I had for things for Abby, the sweet cat of 13 years who died recently. Abby was an indoor/outdoor cat who got along fine with Amber, our big dog, and had the run of the house when she wanted, and was fed and watered in the garage, where she slept in a cat cube on top of a large stack of firewood along one wall. There is a cat door in the overhead garage door, so she could go in and out of there at will. I kept the kitty litter box in the bathroom with the door open for her to use in emergencies.

Jet is very curious and is now checking out things all over the first floor of the house. We are keeping Amber contained or outside to keep Jet as safe as possible, though Jet slides under the dog gate and goes in where Amber is several times a day. I try not to freak out when this happens. We can’t watch her 24/7 and if she’s determined to go in there, we hope she can get back out again if she needs to.

I now have moved her food container in the bathroom, plus plastic bags for kitty litter cleanup, plus cleaning supplies. The only thing not in there right now is the broom and dust pan because I’m afraid she’ll knock that over and I don’t want her to hurt herself. I was able to get things cleaned up pretty quickly this morning without a lot of running back and forth.

I’m hopeful that once we’re sure Jet and Amber are at least at detente, we can start working on showing Jet where the garage is, the ‘facilities’ we’ve set up out there, and once she knows where the house is, we’re hoping she will enjoy being outside, too, whenever she wants. One day at a time.