Before Tabetha was born I did a lot of reading about introducing a baby into a house with pets, specifically cats. We have three, and I wanted to make sure it went as smoothly as possible. I read all about gradual introductions, and giving the cats things of the baby's to smell, and playing audio recordings of babies crying to get the cats used to it, etc etc etc... but the truth is I didn't do any of those things and the introduction went far more smoothly than I'd even hoped.
The feline members of the family are:
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we gave a copy of this to the vet as proof -
or she'd never have believed it! |
Circe. Our only girl, and the matriarch. Circe is one of two cats Chris bought me for my birthday in 2003, when he first moved to Canada. Many of our friends have only gotten to know her in the last year and a half - Circe was the original scaredy-cat for years, and really started coming out of her shell when the delicious pregnancy hormones kicked in. Circe is a momma cat, though she's never had a litter of her own. We thought that when we brought Tabetha home from the hospital we wouldn't see her for a few weeks - instead she took to following us around to make sure we treated her baby with the care she deserved. She is still much more willing to be mauled than anyone thought possible!
Lucius. He's all white with the palest pink ears, nose, and paws, and he looks positively angelic. His hobbies, however, include meowing at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night and randomly beating on our other boy cat, so looks are pretty deceiving in this case. We got Lucius in the summer of 2007 after having to put our cat Ulysses down. He's the least likely to have anything to do with Tabby, but when she was smaller he liked to crawl into my lap when she was nursing and lie back to back with her.
Now, when Tabetha chases after him he almost always evades, but occasionally he will submit to me taking her hand and running it down his back in my attempts to teach her to be gentle with the kitties.
Lastly, there's Nox. We got Nocturnus, nicknamed Nox, at the same time we got Lucius. Nox was my baby before Tabby came. One of his favourite ways to fall asleep at night was flopped on his back wrapped in my arms like a teddy bear, purring like a fiend. It took me two months to train him out of trying to sleep lying on my face. This is the cat I could take in the shower with me and bathe without getting scratched - not because he likes water, but because he was so completely and utterly mine. (I'm pretty sure he thinks he's a dog. He also plays fetch, comes when he's called, and eats scraps off the floor.)
My mother was really concerned that Nox would be jealous when the baby came and that we might have problems with him. Instead, this is the cat who will literally come and lie down at her feet when she's jumping, and purr while she stomps all over him and giggles.
A lot of people have reservations about babies and pets, especially cats. Some of it is warranted - babies are warm and soft and don't move much, and I have certainly seen cats try to lie on them - Nox included, with a friend's baby who was visiting. I certainly didn't give the cats any unsupervised access to the baby at all until she outweighed them substantially and I'd had months of observations, and I still make sure she can't somehow corner them or make them feel threatened. Any animal can hurt a child under the wrong circumstances, and I think it's my job to keep circumstances from heading that way.
So far, though, watching them interact has been wonderful. They are incredibly respectful of her space and her things. I have only had to chase Nox out of her crib once since she started sleeping in it, and none of her toys have cat bite marks. When she gets too rough with them, they simply leave, but their patience for her enthusiasm is pretty wonderful. In return, Tabetha is already learning that there are creatures smaller than she is, that she needs to be gentle with them, and that they're fun to be with.
Pretty good lessons, I think!
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