My introverted cats

Before yesterday, I had no firsthand experience of the phenomenon of pets turning into their owners. That all changed when seven of my extended family members popped round for afternoon tea. I was really excited for them to see how much my two cats had grown, as they hadn’t seen them since Christmas, and I bought their favourite treats (my cat’s and my family’s) to share. My cats live a quiet life, and the most people they ever see in one go is three, so I really should have been the first one up the stairs of my second-floor flat rather than letting seven ‘strangers’ in to meet the cats face-to-face first.

I didn’t think of that, though, so only the first person into the flat actually saw them, and that was for a fraction of a second, before they disappeared up the second flight of stairs, where they remained under my bed for the next two hours.

One of my visitors is a vet, so I did my usual overthinking (I am a typical introvert) and was stressed out for the entire visit, thinking that she would judge me for not being a good cat parent. I don’t think that was the case, though, and I realised that I am just going to have to live with the fact that I live with two introverted cats. We all slept well last night after our social experience (typical introvert behaviour again!) and I am relieved to see that the cats were not traumatised by the whole experience, even if I was, a little.