Just Cat Things: My First Time Cat Owner Update

This morning I woke up because something was gently tapping my face. It was Luna, with her paw, letting me know that her food bowl was tragically empty and it was 6:31 AM, a full minute past her usual breakfast time. Three weeks ago, I was genuinely worried I might never even get to pet her. Now, she's waking me up for breakfast. The transformation is just incredible. That initial phase of everything feeling like some kind of baffling, first time cat owner weird behavior has settled into... just life. Her weirdness is now our normal, and honestly, I love it. She has the full run of the apartment now, and she owns this place far more than I do.

Our days have settled into a comfortable rhythm. We have our routine: the 6:30 AM wake-up call, breakfast, her supervising me getting ready for work from her perch on the cat tree, and then her long day of important cat business (mostly napping in sunbeams). But when I get home from work, she's usually waiting by the door. And she chirps this little 'mrrrp?' sound. Then it's playtime, our non-negotiable daily ritual with the wand toy, which usually ends with her dramatically flopping onto her side, exhausted. It's predictable and stable, and I think we both find a lot of comfort in it. She's not a lap cat yet, but she's a 'next to me' cat, which feels just as good.

The New Normal

It's funny how things that used to freak me out are now just endearing. Like, yesterday she very deliberately and with intense focus pushed my wallet off the nightstand, then looked me dead in the eye as if to say 'and what are you going to do about it?' A few weeks ago, I would've been frantically googling 'signs of psychopathy in cats.' But yesterday I just laughed. It's just a cat thing. The midnight zoomies don't sound like a monster in the walls anymore, they just sound like Luna being happy. I can even tell her meows apart now—there's the insistent 'feed me' meow, the soft chirp of greeting, and the annoyed little grumble when I have to move her off my clean laundry. Understanding her is less about research now and more about just knowing her.

The bond is definitely there. It's this quiet, steady thing that's grown out of patience and playtime and just sharing the same space. It's not the overwhelming, instant love I maybe thought it would be, it's something earned, and that makes it feel even more special. I just sat on the couch last night watching her doze and thought about how empty and quiet the apartment felt before she got here, and I'm not overthinking everything anymore I'm just enjoying having this little furry soulmate around who seems to finally be happy here. It feels really, really good. That constant low-level panic from the beginning is just gone, replaced with this deep affection.

I was looking at my phone calendar and realized I need to book her first wellness vet check-up, and for the first time, I don't feel like a total fraud who's going to be exposed for not knowing anything. I feel like I can actually talk to the vet about her personality, her eating habits, her favorite toys. I can tell them that she loves the cardboard box more than the expensive bed. Comparing who I am now to the anxious mess I was on day four, when Luna was just a mysterious creature under the bed, is just wild. That long-held dream of owning a cat is finally my reality, and it's so much messier, funnier, and more wonderful than I ever could have imagined. [Read more: {building-a-bond-with-your-new-cat}]