Most mornings, or what most people would call noon, begin the same way in my house. I wake up to the sound of Whiskey Kitty meowing from somewhere nearby like a tiny alarm clock that runs on fur and attitude. From my extensive scientific research, also known as “living with a cat,” I have concluded that this particular meow means one thing: breakfast.
Brilliant deduction, right?
So I crawl out of bed, still half asleep, and head straight for the food bowl. Whiskey follows like a tiny supervisor making sure I don’t forget the most important task of the day. Once she’s eating, I wander downstairs, take my medicine, make some tea, and usually have a cigarette while the household slowly wakes up.
After she’s had time to eat and handle her bathroom business, I open the door and let her come downstairs too. That’s the normal routine.
But lately I’ve noticed something strange.
When she finally comes down, she sometimes looks like she just came home from an all-night rave. Her fur is all messed up, her eyes are huge and dilated, and she moves around a little slow and shaky. It makes me stop and wonder if I’m doing something wrong. Am I feeding her enough? Should I be feeding her more than once a day? Is she getting sick? Is my little Whiskey Kitty okay?
Naturally, when you care about an animal, your brain goes straight to worry.
But the funny thing about cats is that most of the time they look like tiny disasters simply because… they just woke up. Cats sleep 12 to 16 hours a day, sometimes even more when they’re young. When they come out of a deep sleep their pupils can be huge, their fur can be sticking out in every direction, and their movements can look slow and wobbly for a minute or two. It’s basically the feline version of a human stumbling into the kitchen before coffee.
“Where am I… what year is it… oh right… food.”
Another thing I’ve learned is that most cats should actually be fed more than once a day. Many people feed their cats two smaller meals, usually morning and evening. Cats in the wild eat several tiny meals because they hunt small prey throughout the day. A single feeding works for some cats, but two meals often fits their natural rhythm better.
So Whiskey’s noon wake-up call may not just be hunger. It might be her biological schedule saying:
“Excuse me, human. It is time for the official opening of the breakfast buffet.”
The messy hair is also perfectly normal. Cats twist themselves into positions that look like yoga poses invented by spaghetti noodles. When they wake up, their fur can look like they spent the night in a wind tunnel.
The big eyes are another classic cat feature. When cats wake up or get curious, their pupils expand wide like black moons. It helps them gather more light and react quickly to movement. In other words, her eyes aren’t a sign she’s sick. They’re a sign she’s suddenly alert and ready to investigate the universe… or at least investigate the food bowl.
And the slow walking? That can simply be a sleepy cat rebooting her operating system.
Loading…
Stretching…
Tail calibration…
Breakfast detected.
Of course, if a cat were truly sick, you would usually see other signs too: not eating, hiding, vomiting frequently, constant lethargy, or refusing to play. Whiskey, on the other hand, still has her famous evening zoomies, darts around the house like a furry rocket, and attacks yarn balls like they insulted her ancestors. Those are the behaviors of a healthy young cat.
So the more I think about it, the more it seems that Whiskey Kitty isn’t sick at all.
She’s just… a cat.
A slightly messy, slightly dramatic, occasionally shaky-when-she-wakes-up cat who sleeps like a rock and wakes up demanding food service like a tiny hotel guest.
And honestly, if the worst problem in my life right now is worrying whether my cat woke up with messy hair, I’m probably doing okay.
Whiskey gets fed, I get my tea, the house slowly comes alive, and the day begins.
And as always, between the art, the cat, and the strange rhythms of life, I remind myself:
Once again… I got this. 🐈☕️
meow!
by Dan and Bonkers
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