The Kitten Chronicles: No Running in the House

23 Nov The Kitten Chronicles: No Running in the House

Don’t know if your mom or dad ever called out, “No running in the house!” but mine sure did. Now I certainly understand it. Our kitten, Baby, wakes up some mornings in a hyper mood, dashing up the circular stairs to our loft office, running along the upper banister, jumping from surface-to-surface in a barely controlled flurry of fur.

Old enough to effortlessly jump up to areas formerly out of reach, Baby will leap her way up to the top of our filing cabinets where she will wind her way behind our orchid plants sunning there. Then she’ll hop down to run along the windowsill, occasionally stopping to bat at our bright blue Chinese glass float hanging in the window.

There was one particular moment that took our breath away. It was an unexpected error on our part. Ariel had placed a folded blanket along the top of the wicker couch in our office loft. It was not only pretty, but also served to block the sun shining behind us through our skylights, which was an occasional distraction during Zoom meetings. The blanket stayed in place for weeks until the day that Baby decided to “zoom” also. Just before one of our podcasts, she was racing around and jumped from desk to floor, bounding to the couch seat and then to its back, only to have her momentum take her up and over the railing, plunging twelve feet to the floor below. We were shaken up – Baby not so much.

So now, to the best of our ability, we have moved those movable objects, such as the blanket, and have removed instable surfaces from her path. We regularly play with her with to burn off the excess energy when we can. And unlike when we were children and we bumped our heads or scraped a knee, Baby doesn’t cry. If she runs full tilt into the wall or falls from a height, you can almost see her shrug her shoulders and get on with her day.