MY FIRST PET, MOCHA
06/09/2020
This post is all about my first pet, Mocha! I wasn’t allowed to have any pets growing up because my parents weren’t very fond of animals, so I’ve been looking forward to getting my first pet ever since I moved out. I’ve always preferred dogs to cats, but ever since I met my husband Nick, I’ve started to like cats more!
Nick and I were in a long distance relationship before we moved in and eventually got married, so whenever I visited him we would look at cats at adoption places. More often than not, we would look at the cats but none of them felt like “our” cat. For Mocha, it was completely different. When we first got to take a closer look, I was slightly hesitant because she was a kitten, but she felt right. She felt like the one… and so we got her!
She was so small! We got her when she was 8 weeks old. I had no idea how to hold her or even pet her because I was scared I might hurt her. I’m always so surprised when I look back on older photos of her because she’s a lot bigger now (albeit still a smaller cat than other cats I’ve seen)!
For the first week, we set up the bathroom as a little area for her to eat, sleep, and explore. She didn’t seem scared at all- she sniffed every nook and cranny and made herself comfortable on my lap whenever I came to check in on her. It was a relief- Nick had a cat growing up and he would freak out every time he went somewhere new.
Getting used to owning a cat was weird at first. I wasn’t able to go out of the house for longer than an hour because we had a young kitten that needed attention seemingly all the time! I also had to learn all about what cats could and couldn’t eat, how to clean their litterbox, and of course, how to hold them. I even had a scare when one morning I woke up to Mocha limping… I frantically googled her symptoms and went to the vet thinking she broke her foot. Turns out that she just lightly sprained it, probably by jumping off the tub and landing weirdly. It was a $200 well learned lesson!
Speaking of the vet, we had to get Mocha spayed/neutered, and that was a wild time. We had never left Mocha anywhere overnight alone before, and this vet appointment was going to be the first time. It was weird but also kind of relieving that we got to have some time to ourselves without worrying about Mocha (this must be how new parents feel). Anyway, we ended up being able to pick her up early, which was great! She came home in this cone on her head so she wouldn’t tear her stitches, and she did NOT like it at all. She was walking weirdly and had a really hard time eating. So we ended up getting her a cute blue suit to wear that covered her stomach! The suit made her walk funny too, but it let her eat comfortably.
Mocha has an interesting personality. She’s very playful when she’s in the mood, but sometimes she goes too far. I have the scars to prove it! Most of them are from when she was small and didn’t know better, but she’s gotten a lot better. She still meows whenever we’re eating lunch/dinner, and her first instinct is to bite and kick whenever a hand comes her way, but hey! She used to climb me to smell/knead/eat my hair…
At our old apartment, she used to sleep right on my pillow on top of my head! Now that we’ve moved, her favourite place is just in her little cat tree beside the window, or below our bed. I hope she starts sleeping with us again once she gets more comfortable in our new place.
Honestly, it felt like time passed by so fast. She was this tiny little bean before, but now she’s a full grown cat! I can’t wait to celebrate her first birthday and spend many more years to come with her in our lives.
