Meet the Siblings - Tiny the Cat

This is 100% satirical as I don't really believe that our pets will be Brighton's siblings; but I thought it'd be fun to write about them since they are a big part of our home and family. Matt and I think this post is funny, but if you aren't an animal lover feel free to skip this one ;)

Brighton,

You are a lucky little girl - you already have TWO siblings! They are not humans, but they have been a part of this family long before we ever dreamed of you. Your mama and daddy would like to introduce you to them since they'll be part of your life for a long time.

First, let me introduce Tiny.

Tiny is our family cat and is 10 years old. His mommy was a feral calico cat that I found shivering and wet under my car during a late spring snowstorm while I was in my last semester in college. Much to my roommates dismay, I brought the cat inside (thus saving her life in my humble opinion) and started feeding her daily. We named her Bamboo. My parents agreed to adopt her after I graduated and asked me to take her to the vet to get her spayed. While at the vet, we found out she was pregnant! So a few months later, during my last week of exams, Bamboo crawled under my bed and howled for a few hours in labor. The next morning, I was greeted with four tiny mewing kittens, one of which was Tiny.

We adopted out all the kittens once they were big enough - Tiny went to my then boyfriend (who named him Max). A few months later I broke up with said boyfriend and a few months after that he asked if I would be willing to take the cat because his new girlfriend was allergic.

So I officially adopted Max and renamed him Tiny. He was 18 pounds at the time, all fat and fur and I thought naming him something ironic would be cute. I bought him tons of toys, a fancy litter box that looked like a house, and let him eat wet food even though he needed to lose some weight. He was the absolutely sweetest cat - he cuddled constantly, purred whenever he greeted me and slept in my bed at night.

Then I met your father, who was not a cat person; but your daddy loved me, and Tiny and I were a package deal. Tiny was our only pet for the first few years of our marriage and he slowly learned to love your daddy.

Tiny has some strange habits I need to tell you about - he sucks his paw like a little kid sucks their thumb. He'll crawl up into your lap, do that annoying turn, turn, turn thing to get comfortable (all the while sticking his butt right in your face), lay down and start sucking his paw. Here is a video to prove what I am talking about:

Tiny is a grass connoisseur - he'll eat a little of it daily, and then immediately throw it up. I'm not sure why he continues to eat grass knowing the side effects, but maybe he has a bad short term memory. He also loves bread - whenever we leave any sort of bread or tortillas on the kitchen counter, he will find it and eat most of it, then throw it up. The cat has a serious puking issue.

eating grass as usual, weirdo

Tiny has also peed and pooped in places he shouldn't to spite us - on a bed, in the bathtub, on the dog's bed. (Update: I received an email from a reader telling me that my cat needs to be taken to the vet about this. I need to clarify that he has only does this every once in a while and we've confirmed he is not sick and yes we clean his litter box every day.). We let him roam the house at night so he will use his litter box, which is super annoying because he starts meowing loudly for food around 4am. When one of us gets up to grab him and lock him in the bathroom, he hides from us unless we go in the kitchen and open the cabinet door to where the pet food is located (which has a freaking child protective lock on it because otherwise he'd open it up, pull out his food, eat a bunch of it and puke it up on the floor).

Tiny's HoneyBadger face

Tiny loves to be outside. We have a 9 foot privacy fence surrounding our backyard and we let him out there daily. He also loves to sleep on our clean laundry we tend to leave in a pile on our bed, but equally loves to sleep in the laundry basket on top of the dirty clothes. He lays or stands near my work laptop (when I'm working from home) for hours and just stares at me. He also "talks" back in the fact that if your dad or I ask him a question, he will reply with a meow.

These are all different days of him sitting/laying and staring. Such a strange cat.

He has a grooming issue in the fact that when he has long fur, he stops grooming himself almost entirely and gets all sorts of dirty (once your daddy found a slug stuck in his long fur - GAG!), so we take him to the groomer every 3-4 months and get his fur cut short. Then he gets this weird complex and acts skittish and jumpy for a day or two.

Tiny without a haircut.

Tiny with a haircut. This would give me a complex too.

But despite all his super annoying and downright frustrating quirks, your daddy and I love him (me more than your father). I can hold him like a baby, calm him down with the shake of my finger, he comes when I call him (unless it's his daily 4am hiding shenanigans) and purrs the minute I pick him up or walk into a room and call his name.  

He doesn't particularly like children, mostly because they are loud and chase him around the house and/or don't know how to pet him without sort of slapping him, so I have a feeling that he'll be a little cautious of you at first. 

This is his "I'm about to either run or smack you with my large paw" face.

But he'll warm to you over time and grow to love you. I know you'll love him back.

I'll introduce your other sibling in the next post.

Love,
Mama