This isn’t a Home… It’s a Madhouse!

As many who know me are aware, I live with five cats. Two are elderly (18 & 14), the other three quite a bit younger (3, 3, & 5). So, all are adults. Recently, we began fostering two kittens, about five weeks old. At the same time, our daughter decided to foster a litter of four kittens, about six weeks old. This becomes important later!

As we expected, our homeowner cats (HOC) weren’t happy. There was a lot of growling and hissing from the HOC, and scared babies. We kept the kittens in our bathroom at night, and within sight during the day. Things were gradually settling down.

Two and a half weeks passed, and our daughter moved back in with us. I’m happy she’s here; I love having her at home. It reminds me of when she was younger and we’d talk together about everything under the sun. But remember her foster kittens? Plus the two adults she already had, who already weren’t happy about the additions. It’s a package deal!

So, now our house is filled with nocturnal creatures, five of which were already mad about being invaded by babies, and don’t like sharing their space with newcomers, plus two that don’t want to be here. Add to that, five kittens that just want to play, eat, and sleep and don’t understand what the big deal is. A home is a home, right? When one goes bouncing up to an adult to play, they quickly have their little world turned around. It’s cute, but sad to see them blinking in surprise, then hide, terrified. We quickly move them away and cuddle them.

Needless to say, the night comes to life around here. We still keep our two fosters in our bathroom at night, only now they’ve figured out they don’t want to be in there–all the action is happening on the other side of that door. I still struggle to keep them in when I get up in the middle of the night and stumble in to use the facilities, but my hubby has given up and goes to the powder room. Kiddo’s babies are sleeping in her room, as well. That leaves seven adult cats roaming at night, and suddenly a 2400sf house doesn’t have nearly as much room as it needs.

Around midnight last night, a terrifying scream disrupted our nice, sound sleep. One of the cats wasn’t happy about something. Anyone who lives with cats knows they can sound as though they’re possessed by demons. Hubby jumped up and went into the office, while kiddo, at the other end of the house was calling out, “What was that?” Of course, there wasn’t a cat was in sight. As he stumbled back to bed, he relented and used our bathroom, and accidentally released Winky, the female baby. As soon as I laid back down she started crying–baby cats are very loud. She changed her little mind–now she wanted back into the bathroom. I guess she figured there were too many huge, violent cats roaming the bedroom. So I got up and put her back with her brother. She was happy then. And the rest of the night was relatively calm.

I’m afraid it’s the calm before the storm. The growling and hissing are nonstop this morning. I think our HOC is trying to tell us to send the interlopers home, while our daughter’s cats are searching for home. With cats hissing at babies, babies scurrying under the furniture, HOC growling and hissing at interlopers and trying to stand their ground, as the title says, this place is crazy! I catch Fred, our cross-eyed cat looking at me as if to say, Mom, what gives? What did we do? Who knows how many cats he’s seeing now.

There’s plenty of food and water, and kiddo is keeping the boxes clean. Toys are everywhere, as our feet can tell you. If the cats would just figure out how to can get along, they’d have fun playing with the kittens, and with each other. Cats. You just can’t tell them a thing.