When my son called me in mid-June asking me to “babysit” Teacake, his three-year-old cat, I immediately replied, “Sure, I’d love to take care of her.” He was planning a ten-day trip to hike and campout in Olympic National Park with a friend. He would spend a three-day weekend with me, drive home and then fly out to Seattle at the end of the week and then pick up Teacake when he returned.
The thought of spending a long weekend with another human being, to talk with in person was sheer delight. I could cook for my son – all his favorite foods. And with Mike’s appetite, I would not have to eat the same leftovers for the next five days. After he left, I would have an adorable, playful cat to entertain me. I could talk to a living creature instead of one of the many stuffed animals that were given to me by my children and now reside on the empty side of my huge King-sized bed. I was happily anticipating the 18-day respite from the isolation of the 2020 pandemic.
But as the days drew nearer to my son’s visit to drop off his precious roommate, I started having second thoughts.
Teacake sleeps in a King-sized bed with her daddy. When she wakes up at 6 AM and decides she is hungry (which is the usual occurrence) she would begin to chirp. If her daddy did not move, she would meow repeatedly. If this did not get the appropriate response (as her daddy rolled over with a loud grunt), Teacake would become more aggressive and begin to comb her daddy’s hair with her sharp claws. Having one’s hair combed by cat claws (even if one finds that cat adorable) is not easy to ignore. So, Teacake became accustomed to eating early every morning.
I like, no need, eight hours of sleep every night. I have been a widow for almost three years and am not used to having anyone disturb my sleep. Plus, with the COVID-19 pandemic, I had not set my alarm clock in months. What is the point when I have nowhere to go each day? (Did I mention I am also blissfully retired.)
I started to have trepidations about Teacake’s visit. So instead of calling my son and telling him I could not take care of adorable Teacake, I decided to set some boundaries for my new houseguest.
- She will not sleep in my bed.
- To discourage her from even wanting to get into my room early in the morning to be fed, she will not even be allowed in Oma’s bedroom. Period.
- Even though she is supposed to be on a diet (as am I, so I can definitely sympathize with Teacake) she will get a late night snack at 10 PM to hold her over until the next morning at a civilized hour.
Now I may have set boundaries to avoid Teacake while I was sleeping, I planned lots of fun time too, like letting her chase a yarn ball on a string, a laser beam, or a gyroscope. I also planned to let her sit outside with me on my back-yard patio in the cooler mornings and evenings.
When Teacake was here on Mother’s Day weekend, she joined us a few times on the back patio. She was timid at first, afraid to walk in the 3-inch-tall grass. She preferred to walk on the rocks edging the flower beds. She never went near the “danger zone” – a four-foot-wide flower bed (sock sticker patch is a more appropriate name) that separated my lush yard from the tall grass in the pasture beyond. There was an 8-foot-tall wire fence separating my yard from the neighboring ranch, but the 4 inch by 6 inch grid was large enough for skunks, possums, and armadillos to visit my yard whenever it pleased them to dig up a late-night snack. Certainly, a cat on a diet could easily fit through these “holes” in the fence. But Teacake was afraid to walk in grass, so I planned to have some quiet play time with Teacake in my backyard.
On July 10 Mike and Teacake arrived. She traveled well this time; tranquilized with Kitty Ativan. When Mike visited in May, he had to stop several times during the 90-minute trip to appease his kitty. Her pitiful screeching and kicking at the sides of her crate made it all too painful how unhappy she was traveling down a highway at 70 miles an hour. Teacake like many other Americans has had to subscribe to Ativan to get through these trying times.
Mike stayed with me for three days to visit with me and help me buy and set up a new iPhone. I had been wanting a new phone for months but kept putting if off as all the stores were closed because of the pandemic. We found a phone store in Fredericksburg that luckily had my phone in stock. That afternoon, Mike set up my new phone while I was busy napping.
Teacake was a perfect guest. She slept on a little cat bed in front of my fireplace. She did not bother me at night. But when she heard me open my door each morning, she was right there begging for her empty tummy to be filled. It was easy to slip in her allergy pill (Yes, our dear Teacake has allergies) into her breakfast. She was so hungry she would gobble it up without noticing the pill inserted in a tasty pill pocket. Then in the evenings, she would curl up on my lap while we watched movies on Netflix. I sent pictures of Teacake sleeping on my lap with my new supper duper phone. Mike began to worry Teacake would forget about him while he was gone!
After a few days of spending time investigating everything on my patio, Teacake began to investigate the nearby flowerbeds. She became more confident playing in the yard and her huntress qualities began to emerge.
Teacake found all sorts of “toys” to hunt down. She would crouch down low, her tail wagging briskly, and pounce down on unsuspecting grasshoppers. Carrying it in her mouth she would proudly bring it to me on the patio. “Look what I found” I could almost here her meow. She would release the poor grasshopper and then chase after it again. She would play with her toy until she wore it out or bit down too hard on its crunchy body. Then she would poke the dead critter with her paw, get a dejected look and meow, “my toy is broken!”
Every day, Teacake found two or three grasshoppers to amuse herself. One day she brought me a dragon fly. It looked huge in her mouth, and I secretly hoped she would not bring me anything too large. She did try to get a beautiful red cardinal one morning. But I ran and chased the bird away before Teacake could pounce. She meowed in protest. “I can’t let you have a beautiful cardinal! Sorry TK.” (I call her TK sometimes. It stands for Tinny Kitty – wishful thinking!)
The next morning, TK was in her “huntress position” for several minutes. I could not see what she was stalking. A little voice told me to stand up and check it out. There, eight feet from TK was a large grey possum trying to get into my neighbor’s yard. The neighbor’s fence grid was too small for the possum to escape through, and the back fence was 30 feet away. After this quick assessment, I grabbed TK and hurried into the house juggling my new phone still in my hand.
What was she thinking! That possum’s body was as big as TK and its mouth much larger than hers. I started wondering what would happen to a cat if it tangled with a possum, so I googled,” cats and possums.” It read “As a rule cats and possums respect one another and do not attack each other.” Apparently, TK did not know about this rule.
TK was getting braver with each day’s adventures in the yard. At first, she just walked along the 8-inch-tall rock border of the sticker patch. She would look over at me to see if I were watching her; just like a teenager getting ready to push the envelope. One day when I was looking down at my cell phone, she crossed into the danger zone. When I looked up, I saw her looking longingly at the deep grass of the pasture. I was afraid she would go after something hidden in the grass and be through the fence in a flash. Then I would be in a quandary, as there was no way for me to get her in the pasture if she decided “the grass was greener on her side of the fence.” It actually is very brown, but that is not how this metaphor reads.
The first time I saw TK in the danger zone, I urgently called to her in a stern voice, “Teacake, No. Come here.” Of course, she did not listen to my command. Afterall she is a cat. So, I had to get up from my comfortable lounge chair and quickly run/walk fast to her before she disappeared into the pasture. I picked her up and carried her squalling all the way back to the patio; put her down and cried, “Bad kitty.”
Then I had an idea. The next time she went into the danger zone, I brought the snack bag out to her. Shaking the contents of the bag, I called, “Come Teacake. Treats!” Her hungry appetite won out, and she started coming to me without the tortuous trip being carried to the patio. After a few days, still sitting in my lounge chair, when I would call in a deep voice, “No Teacake. Come,” she would run to me in a gallop knowing what was waiting. “Good Teacake,” I crooned each time and handed her a tasty salmon treat. I was not keeping Teacake on her diet, nor was I getting any much-needed exercise, but we were on vacation from the pandemic
When my son came back to pick TK up, we spent some time out on the patio. TK was surprisingly good about avoiding the danger zone. But one morning she was finally tempted by something in the danger zone and went after it. Mike was about to chase after her in his bare feet. “Wait Mike” I said. Then in my deep voice, “No Teacake. Come.” She turned around and sauntered back to the patio. In amazement, Mike said, “How did you do that?”
“Oh, I have been training her to come to me by giving her treats.” With a satisfied grin, I added “I did the same with you and your brother.”
The eighteen days with Teacake was not a complete Pandemic Respite. Three days before Mike was supposed to fly out to Seattle, he had a second bout of COVID-19 symptoms. His doctor discouraged him from getting tested as their test took 10 days for results, and his test from a previous infection gave a false negative. But he was exhausted and did not have the energy to drive to the airport no less fly across the country. He had to cancel his vacation. Then two days later, I developed a severe headache, body aches, exhaustion, shortness of breath etc. One night I felt so weak as I was falling asleep, I prayed, “Lord, please don’t let me get so sick I can’t take care of Teacake.” I was more worried about taking care of the kitty then my ending up in a hospital.
Fortunately, after a ten-hour sleep, I felt better and thankfully, never got terribly sick. Teacake remained a perfect companion and guest. I was sad when her daddy came and took her back home. He reported that she was fussy the first two days, crying to go outside. But his patio is on the third floor of a condominium complex, so there was no grass and more importantly no grasshoppers to play with.
I am looking forward to Teacake’s next visit to the Fredericksburg resort at my home and a few more glorious days of Pandemic Respite.
An Ordinary Woman 