Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Of cats and babies

As my husband and I have been preparing for the birth of our first born we've been keeping the cats in mind. I'm excited for baby and I know she is going to require much of or time. I do feel bad for the cats having less of our time. Whiskers in particular, he has been in a major playful mood recently and needs extra play time. Maya will play with him at times so that helps.

So I've been thinking of buying them a cat tree for Christmas. With all the stuff for baby the cats deserve sometime new for them as well. I've been wanting to get them one for awhile anyways. And I'm sure Toby would appreciate a good perch for when Whiskers is chasing him.

I have also been trying out various cat toys to see what they might like. I've been looking at ones they can play with on thier own if needed, but we can still toss around to. Whiskers likes this little play and squeak mouse. As it gets bopped around it makes a mouse squeaking noise. He tosses it then chases it.

When baby is born I'll keep a good eye on how the cats are around her. I don't think any of the cats would harm her, but better to be careful. Heck, she might enjoy being held by one of us and watching the other play with the cats. Whiskers does run after the teaser pretty quick when he wants to play.

2 comments:

~Claire~ said...

The cats will adjust, and so will you! We had cats pre-kids as well, and thinking of the adjustments was crazy. In the end the only problem we had was with our snuggle-buddy, Gina, who would want to go in the crib and snuggle with the baby! We eventually tied a sheet over the top so she couldn't, and that cat was our older daughter's best friend until she passed away! We now have a baby (9 months) and a kitten (4 months), and you are definitely right in that babies love to watch the cats play. They will learn respect and boundaries, it just takes some time. I hope it all ends up working well for you!

As far as toys go, I found the mice on the sticks worked well because I could stick the pole under the chair cushion while I was rocking baby and the toy would bounce around and the cat would be getting "play" time, and I still had both hands to attend to babe with!! lol

Claire Goverts said...

Thanks for stopping by. That's a great idea for rocking and kitty play time. We have a little plastic stick teaser with a bit of fuzzy material on it which would work well for that purpose. Heck its even Whiskers favorite toy at the moment. The other cats also like it, the two of them will bat it at times.