Let me set the scene for you.

I have a spare bedroom which is the litter box room. I have four litter boxes in it, spaced out. Three have pine litter, which I scoop into a biodegradable bag, and one has clay litter. When I scoop the boxes, I carry the appropriate bag over to the box, scoop, move on to the next box and then when I’m done, return the bag to the area with the bags and scoopers.

So, last night I’m cleaning the litter boxes. I scoop the clay one, then go to do the pine ones. I scoop the first one, carry the bag across the room, scoop the second one, and box three is unused so I skip it and return the bag to the bag area. So far so good.

The, I turn around and notice there’s a pee clump sitting on the floor.

Okay, I think, I put the bag on the floor when I scoop – I must have dropped the clump on the edge of the bag and it rolled out when I picked it up. So I grab the scooper, grab the bag and go to clean up the pee clump. So far so good.

Then, as I go to put the bag away again, I notice there’s a pile of litter on the floor near litter box number one. Hmm, I think, how did I miss that? But okay, I grab the bag and scoop and clean that one up as well, and back goes the bag.

As I’m putting the bag down, I notice that there’s an awful lot of litter and a couple of pieces of poop in the spot where I store the bag. Hmmmmmm…

I lift up the bag to look at it and dirty litter comes pouring out the gigantic tear in the bottom. I look to the spots I just cleaned up and gee, what a surprise… I’ve left a lovely trail of litter behind me as I’ve moved from place to place to clean up.

Some how, in my exhaustion, I managed to not notice that I was leaving a trail of litter behind me as I moved around this small room. A second bag and some midnight vacuuming later and all was restored to order, but I can tell you, I’ll be making a point of cleaning the boxes before I’m feeling quite that sleep deprived in the future.

Yesterday morning I was feeling sick, so I slept in. Normally I’m up shortly before 9am, I feed the cats and then go to work. This routine breaks down on the weekends, but during the week the cats expect breakfast.

Since breakfast was becoming more and more delayed because of my sleeping in, Violet decided that she was going to get me up. First, she came in and wandered around the room chirping. When that wasn’t working she emptied the garbage bin onto the floor and pulled out a plastic bag to crinkle. Loud enough to be disturbing but it just wasn’t quite enough to get me out of bed.

I was clearly being stubborn about staying in bed, and breakfast wasn’t serving itself, so Violet upped the ante.

Ever been woken up by a cat dumping cold water all over you? If not, consider yourself fortunate, because it was just about the most shocking thing ever. Violet pushed a large cup of water off the headboard and on to my head, thoroughly soaking me and the bed. Well, I wasn’t going back to sleep, so I got up, put on some dry clothes and a few minutes later, breakfast was served.

I think I may have set a bad precedent, though… this morning I also over slept and woke up just in time to catch Violet trying once again to push my cup of water on to my head.

So, don’t ever tell me that cats are untrainable – they learn all too fast which actions create the results they desire. We humans on the other hand might be a little slower to catch on, and by the time we realize what kind of lessons our cats have learned, it may be a challenge to get them to unlearn them.

Having cats around seem to make everything more enjoyable, but nothing goes  from boring to entertaining with the addition of a cat (or two) like making the bed.

Violet and Clover always join me for this activity and we have a great time making the bed. The sheets become giant moving cat toys as I shake them out over the bed and they will  pounce and stalk and scamble on their bellies to catch the sheet.

Violet likes to stay under the sheets as I make the bed.  She’ll crawl around and Clover will go on top of the covers for some good chasing and pouncing action. The have a great time wrestling through the sheets. Some times I’ll toss Clover under so that Violet can chase her around for a bit.

Alone, making the bed is a boring chore, but add in the cats and we all have a great time. They’re hilarious and adorable and add a wonderful element of fun to things.

How do cats add joy to your daily routine?

If you’re not familiar with Simon’s Cat, watch below. Simon Tofield, the creator of Simon’s Cat, wonderfully captures the essence and personality of his feline friend. I think anyone who lives with a cat will be able to relate to the wonderfully animated situations.

Watch the other Simon’s Cat shorts here: http://youtube.com/user/simonscat