Happy 3rd, Franklin!

This weekend marks a year since Daisy passed away.  I was reflecting on just how much of Franklin’s personality has come out since then.  Though I was sad to lose Daisy, it’s almost as if he’s decided his personality needs to be twice as big to make up for it.  After wondering for a bit if he’d be better off with another cat in the house, he’s made it abundantly clear that his world is happiest when he commands 100% of the attention from the humans in the apartment.  Of course, he’s invariably a bit clingy when I first come back from traveling, but other than that, he seems to be thriving and blissfully happy being an only cat.  Although I don’t know the precise date, Mr. Franklin has also recently passed his 3rd birthday and shows very little sign of slowing down from his occasionally still-manic energy.  He enjoys time in the windows checking out all the activity in the building’s courtyard, including my neighbor Mel’s three cats, all of whom have free reign of the courtyard.

He can still be a stubborn pain in the butt when he wants, but he’s also turned into quite the “lap slut,” jumping upon my lap when I’m trying to work, or when I’m stretched out on the couch reading or watching TV.  Of course, he still takes up as much real estate as available in the bed at night, which can make for interesting sharing when both Sean and I are also trying to use available real estate.

But really, when it gets to the point when I can’t remember life without a furry creature in the house, it means said furry creature really has woven his way into the fabric of my life.  I’ve been so fortunate both here and in Seattle to have great cat-sitters available – if it’s just a work trip, Sean will come check in on him; if both of us are traveling, I’ve had neighbors who don’t mind popping in at all.  Fortunately he’s super low-maintenance.  He’s a good “free feeder” meaning that I can leave dry food out all day and he’ll just graze on it a bit at a time.  So happy that (so far) his eating habits are such that I don’t have to restrict access at all.  He’s not too picky about his bathroom, so he doesn’t require his box to be cleaned twice a day.  All that makes it much less burdensome for a pet-sitter.