Enjoying It While It Lasts
Posted on June 21, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 24 Comments
Although the cats don’t know it, they are on a clock; in about 24 hours, those chairs are to be carted off and replaced with a couch, around which my wife will then redecorate the front room. This may be of some consternation to Ghlaghghee and Zeus, both of whom enjoy the chairs and indeed have their particular ones to sleep in (she prefers the southerly one, while Zeus is partial to the northerly one), but inasmuch as a) their lives are pretty sweet in a general sense, b) both of them have several other favorite sleeping places in the house, I think they may be able to get over this particular disruption. It remains to be seen in either or both will take to the new couch (or whether Krissy will let them).
As for the recliners, they’ve more than earned their keep. My wife bought them from Big Lots eight years ago for something like $100 each; they were ridiculously cheaply made (we suspect that stiffened cardboard was an element of their construction), but they were also pretty darn comfortable, and held up surprisingly well. I am assuming they are off to charity; they’re still usable and nice to sit on. Hopefully whoever buys them will not have a cat allergy. I think cat fur is part of the chairs’ DNA at this point.
I think it’s safe to say that cats live in the moment and they will recover from this life-shattering event.
I think it’s safe to say that cats live in the moment and they will recover from this life-shattering event.
However, you and Krissy may want to check your shoes each morning before you put them on. Just sayin’.
Looks like the cats are on a couple of chairs to me.
I don’t know how our cat would handle the loss of his two or three favorite sleeping chairs. Not well, I think.
Cat on a sofa. Reminds me of a thought experiment having to do with quantum entanglement.
After enough time, I think that cat fur is part of the DNA of the people who own them, too… along with all of the furniture in the house!
I’ve seen tags, “Cat Chair” and “Dog Chair”, attached to chairs at the local thrift shop.
Man – the good old days of eight years ago, when something you bought for $100 lasted eight years. Actually, the good old ays of anything at any price lasting eight years
I’m pretty sure cat fur is part of my DNA, too. All cat people have inadvertently ingested **pounds** of cat fur by the time they hit middle-age…
We recently lost a Siamese cat who always gravitated to the most recently added soft and comfy chair/sofa/anything else. Perhaps your two cats will have the same inclination.
We’re trying to go the other way–from sofa to armchairs. Our dog will probably be equally upset.
Depriving the cats of their appointed posts? I do not envy you. Good luck!
I will be replacing my couch with a sofa bed this year, since the LR is the best place in my new house to store houseguests. And, alas, there’s no OTHER space in the house for the old couch, so It Must Go. This makes me sad, since I’ve had it for almost 25 years and am very fond of it. My parents took me to a discount warehouse in the laet 1980s to help me choose it, as their gift to me when I moved back to the US. My father wandered off, then came back and said, “I’ve just seen Laura’s couch.” We went and looked, and sure enough, it was indeed My Much. All these years later, I still love it. But I really do need a sofa bed, and there really isn’t room in the house for two couches.
Our cat was very dismayed when the favourite recliner went out the door (the frame had completely broken; not salvageable). For weeks he would sit on the spot on the floor where the chair used to be. He hasn’t really taken to the replacement.
The Radiant She and Zeus are probably working on extra fur to shed on the new couch and to hork into your shoes for doing this. I’m saying, projectile motion is gonna happen.
Or who knows, Lopsided Cat may suddenly claim something as his new territory.
The fact that you’ve had cats for so long and think that Krissy will be able to let or not let them sleep wherever they want is so cute. You’re such an optimist. Granted, I give Krissy a better chance of it than most other human beings, but Mrs. S is still just a hairless primate.
(I think I’ve finally gotten the other half to realize that just because he bought the Poang chair for himself doesn’t mean it isn’t now the property of our Pretty Pretty Princess Kitty.)
Any time we get new furniture there is a competition among the upper echelon of the Maine Coons pecking order for first sprawl. I’m betting on Lopsided Cat to call dibs.
Oh, the cats are going to be sooo upset :)
Wayne
You never know… Zorro randomly picks out a new spot for herself every week or two; your cats might do likewise. This week, it’s the paper recycling bin, a box next to the door which accumulates newspapers, bags, magazines, cardboard, and currently the cat. We vaguely hope we notice when it comes time to take it out to the curb and don’t accidentally throw her out.
I tossed out my cat’s favorite blanket (the garage blanket, not the inside blanket) a few days ago, and he’s still pissed off at me. It was stinky and threadbare, and it had to go.
not a cat person, but the last dog I had–German Shepard–loved him a chair. Didn’t care at all about the sofa… but there was one chair, and one chair only that he claimed as his… at least on cold winter nights… the rest of the time not so much… either outside (hated to be cooped up) or on the floor.
The cats will be the semi-unintelligent* things they are and adjust in a day or two.
*just kidding… couple of my favorite animals have been cats. Sneaky, Smart, Silent, and pron to leave dead rabbit heads.. or asses.. in front of the doors.
Yeah Cats are very adaptable to change… As long as it what they want :-)
I have never been fond of cats. That was before I got a kitten from the Animal Rrescue Leauge. Now she is grown up and still does not like to be left alone. She has chosen me as her favorite, even though there are other members in the house hold. Probably because I feed her and give her treats. She loves tio nap in our bay window.
Shoot, if I wasn’t allergic to cat fur I’d drive up there and take the recliners off your hands. They wouldn’t match anything in my living room, but nothing in the room matches anything else anyway, so from that perspective they’d match perfectly.
Well, if you’re really worried that the cats will be upset, here’s what you do: you find yourself a few good cardboard boxes and leave them near where the chairs used to be. As you know Bob, cats can’t resist cardboard boxes. They won’t even notice.