Mummy and daddy are still spending all day at home, mummy has moved into the spare room to do her work and daddy stays in the living room. This means I need to make sure that we are all organised so they are supervised and kept company by one of us at all times. I need to make sure that mummy and daddy get up on time to start their working and that they finish on time to spend time with us and of course each other. They also need to be reminded to take regular breaks so they don’t get all stiff and fat sitting all day. I’m really not sure what mummy and daddy would do without us helping them. How did they ever get any work done when they went somewhere else to work? How did they remember to take their breaks without us reminding them? How did they not get into trouble when we weren’t there to check their work and remind them about their meetings? I really have no idea how they coped without us but this is how the day generally goes now.
Peppar is in charge of getting mummy up, the most important thing is to make sure we get breakfast on time. Then that the door is opened so we can go out and get so fresh air and listen to all the birds singing. Peppar is very food oriented so this is the perfect task for him, he normally sleeps on mummy’s pillow anyway so a quick nudge from him and mummy is awake, a few more nudges and pats and she is up. Then once breakfast is served us girls head with mummy into the bathroom where she does her blushions. The nasty virus is still around so I must make sure mummy washes properly and to my exacting standards. Then mummy goes back to the kitchen to make her morning tea before she starts work. Whilst she’s doing that I do my morning patrol of the balcony and the front door to make sure everything is ok and we haven’t had any intruders overnight, then when mummy is ready we’ll have a play together, this is my way of motivating her and making sure she is fully awake and ready to start work. Then she goes through to the other bedroom to turn on her work machine.
As soon as this is done Millie has got the job of getting daddy up. Millie has this job because she has the unique ability to engage what mummy and daddy call the ‘mental Millie brain’. This means she just goes completely mental around the flat, her eyes go all big and wide and she runs everywhere at top speed making crazy meowing noises. She goes over and above our normal zoomies and is at a whole different level. . This normally happens in the evenings and you’d better watch out coz if you get in her way she’ll take your legs out from under you! Shes up and over all the furniture, then down the corridor and back again crashing through the blinds and out onto the balcony – she’s a crazy, crazy girl. In the mornings though she only engages mental Millie a bit, just enough to to run through to the bedroom, run all over the bed and up and down daddy from head to toe and back again. Sometimes just to make sure she’ll pounce on daddy’s feet just for good measure. “Ok, ok Millie I’m up” he says – job done 😺
Angelin gets the job of motivating daddy once he’s up, she normally gets the morning zoomies whilst daddy is making his coffee, then it’s her job through the day to keep daddy company. When he’s not on his work machine, she plays with him to make sure his brain doesn’t go to sleep and this keeps him motivated through the day.
Once we’ve got them up and working it’s time for a nap after all that hard work so we all settle down, knowing that we’ve done a good job so far. We don’t go far though and we always make sure that we’re nearby in case we’re needed. We all swap about where we nap but normally Millie is through with mummy sitting in the hammock bed next to her, with Peppar on the snuggle bed. Then I can be with daddy keeping an eye on him from my bed behind the sofa and Angelin nearby as backup.
From time to time though we know they need to have a bit of help with their work and closer supervision is in order so this means getting on their lap to make sure what they are doing on the typing machines is up to standard. I’m not really a lap cat and neither is Peppar (except for in the evenings) so this job falls to the two youngsters, Millie and Angelin, they might be young but this is an area where they excel. Sitting, making sure what they’re doing is correct and joining in with mummy’s meetings on the screen to make sure the other people realise how hard mummy is working.
Half way through the day as we’re starting to get hungry I get up and remind mummy that she needs to make some food, unfortunately we don’t get extra food even though they’re home but we do get some little treats of whatever they have. Then another bit of playtime to make sure that they don’t feel sleepy after their lunch. Normally at this time mummy and I have a quick game of football down the corridor with my new favourite softball ⚾️ toy which we found outside whilst on walkies one day. Then it’s back to work for them and supervising for us. More playtime for Angelin and daddy and then we all swap about with who were supervising and keeping company. I might go through with mummy and Peppar off to look after daddy, sometimes we get it a bit wrong and all end up in one room but that’s ok as if mummy or daddy get stuck all they have to do is ask and we’ll come and help them. Then we all settle back down for the afternoon.
It can be very stressful all living together 24 hours a day and has taken some time for us to find a new routine but if it starts to get too much and stress levels are rising we’re there to offer up our stress relief service. This service ranges from a cuddle and a light stroke to a full on roll around, play with me, chase me and rub my belly package. Millie specially is great at giving cuddles, mummy or daddy pick her up and she just flops, legs stretched out, she looks so silly that they can’t help but laugh at her and any stress just melts away. Angelin too just sits next to them and stares silently smiling all the time, she looks so cute you can’t help but relax and smile back at her. As the Queen it’s impawtant for me to make sure the stress levels stay low without them realising that I’m helping them. So, whenever mummy or daddy go to the toilet or run the water in the kitchen I run in and ask to play the damp hands game, my hoomans love playing this game and so I make a big deal of it for them, “do it again” I shout, “again, again, more water, more rubbing please”. They laugh at me and say that I look like a punk cat as my fur goes all spiky, I make them run round the flat after me to play the game and by the time we’ve finished they have laughed, exercised and rubbed me until all the stress has gone away. They don’t even realise what I’m doing! The best thing of all is they think I’m just doing it to help them but as you all know I LOVE 💖 playing the damp hands game and so being able to play it lots of times everyday is just the best thing ever.
That is until it’s around 4pm when my inner cat clock ⏰ wakes me up as we’re getting close to walkies time. Walkies time is the most impawtant time of the day for me so I need to make sure that mummy is ready to go. I need to remind her that she needs to finish doing her work, turn off her typing machine and get ready for some exercise and one on one time with me. I start by just gently reminding her “ mummy it’s nearly time for walkies, you’d better stop working now”. Then as the time goes on and she doesn’t stop I remind her louder and louder, I even go and shout at the front door so she knows where it is we should be going. “Mummy it’s time for walkies now” and if that doesn’t work I go and see daddy “daddy make mummy stop working and take me out”. “She’ll be finished soon Jenny” he says, “ just be patient for a little while longer”. Then finally she slides away her typing pad, stands up, tucks her chair away and says “come on then Jen I’m all done, it’s time to go, we’ll just ask daddy to choose which bandana and we’ll be off”. “Reowra” I shout in glee and run off down the corridor to see daddy to choose the bandana.
The rest of the day is all about us and family time together. We eat, play, fight, run and chase through the evening until we’re all tired out and mummy and daddy go to bed.
It started off very hard to have them both home all the time and at first I wished they would both go back to work so I could have my regular routine back. Now though I like having them both home, we’ve become closer as a family and have learnt so many new things about ourselves and each other, I’ve certainly learnt that change can be a good thing.
Jenny’s Story 