Here is a funny thing my cat does. Every night at about 7:30 we sit down to watch TV, read, or play video games. If, for some reason, we are not sitting down at exactly 7:30 our cat comes to get us. This snuggle time is very important and he cares about it as much as he does his food and water. While he does alert us to when he needs food, water, or a clean litter box, he alerts us twice as much when it is cuddle time. Bed time is also very important to him. If both my wife and I aren’t in bed, together, at the right time he will wander the house yowling and meowing.
I bring this up to illustrate two aspects about cats. They are both social creatures and they know their own needs. It is part of the job of a pet sitter to listen to the animals in our care and unlike dogs who communicate mostly through subtle body language cues, cats are not subtle. I have had dog bowls dropped at my feet and a ball dropped on my face once at an overnight, but those are few and far between with the dogs. When dogs want to go out they will sit by a door or come and look at you like, “Dude get up and take me out,” cats vocalize. My cat will even heard us to our chairs if we aren’t there for snuggle time.
Applying these lessons to the professional life of a pet sitter is easy. Cats are in control. We need to listen to them. If a cat is hiding during a visit don’t go find them. Searching out a hiding cat is a good way to overwhelm them, prove their fear correct, and ruin any chance of ever seeing them on future visits. The best thing to do is to let the cat be a cat. If they want to hide, let them hide, if they want to play, let them play, and if they want to snuggle, let them snuggle. Being a professional pet sitter is about analyzing the situation with the animals, and cats aren’t subtle.
Cats are very good at telling us what they need and trust me I feel like the trained pet more than my cat is. He has this thing where he will only like wet food for a certain length of time. He will devour can after can of wet food at feeding time and I think I have finally broken through and found the one thing that he likes. Then he stops eating that and it is time to try out a new brand. There is no rhyme or reason to it. I have given that boy every type of wet food, but he just gets bored. Would you want to eat the same meal every morning and evening all the time?
That’s the thing with cats. They are easy to understand. They are simple creatures. They want to play, eat, and love. They just might not want to eat what you give them or play or love you. As a pet sitter I have been both the cherished bringer of food and the frightening stranger in the home. My job is to read the cat, understand the situation, and care for them in the way they need caring for.