Just Like Having a Baby

“Look, he’s dangling his head over the side of the bed. Isn’t he cute?”

“I’ve probably got 200 pictures of him on my phone.”

“Aww, he’s so sweet.”

Our cat Eli will be a year old next week, and it is so like having a baby around the house.

Everything he does—including jumping on the table, sleeping on a dining room chair for a couple hours, stopping to sniff the dog, then walking on—it’s all just so delightfully cute.

Who hasn’t laughed about times when little kids receive an abundance of gifts for Christmas, and they prefer to play with the wrapping paper?

We discovered Eli loves paper bags. Not only does he bat at it or chase it, but, again like a baby, he might just crawl in and take a nap. Murray keeps one laying open on the kitchen floor for the little guy.

Like with a small child, we have to make sure the door is securely closed so he doesn’t get out. And, every time one of us goes out, we call, “Where’s the cat? Watch for the cat.”

Because he does love to go out, and he is so quiet and quick to sneak through the open door. The shelter we got him from calls it “door dashing.”

If he does get out, and we can’t find him, we’re all worrying.

What if he gets hit by a car? What if he doesn’t come back? What if he gets into a fight with another cat and gets hurt? What if he gets into something that makes him sick?

Might as well be worrying about a kid.

We’re hopeless.

“He’s taking a bath; how precious.”

“Oh, he’s asleep. So sweet.”

“Aww, he whimpered; Poor little guy.”

“Are you eating a snack, buddy? Good boy.”

“Hey, the cat just fell off the sideboard and landed in a bag of stuff.”

Okay, maybe we wouldn’t have laughed if that happened to a real baby.