Purrfect Upload

There’s always a little cat hair on my dad’s keyboard, I guess it’s ok since he’s got a friend. As a senior, like him, his cat Sparkles finds comfort in his companionship. She is close to him when he spends time on his computer and knows how to inconspicuously fit in. My dad is a fairly recent widower and at 87 years older it’s important to have her in his life. It is a fact that we all love the love of a pet.

Little miss Sparkles was predominantly an outdoor cat most of her life, until recently when my dad decided to sell the family home and to move in to a nice, cozy, and brand new, two bedroom apartment where she now is an indoor cat.

With no birds or mice to catch Sparkles the cat has resigned to lounging and eating. She has adapted to this new chapter in her life quite comfortably and with ease. She keeps in shape by chasing a wooden clothespin around the apartment. She also plays mountain lion by scaling the counter the fridge and up to the peaks of the highest cupboards to stretch out and peruse the going’s outside of her fourth floor kingdom. There is a marvellous man-made outdoor lake outside the apartment and from her vantage point she watches all the people with their dogs waking around the lake.

One of the biggest challenges my father has had with downsizing, besides the loneliness of losing his bride at 16 after 66 years of marriage, has been determining a place for a outdoor house cat that now has to be an indoor apartment cat’s litter box placement. Cat litter as we know is messy and it can be very smelly. There teally was no faraway place in his apartment for her cat litter box so he has placed it in his second bathroom and it’s now her private toilet room.

There’s a little rug in front of the litter box to catch loose litter when she steps out of her box and a charcoal filter at the top of the containment box. He’s managing to keep her litter box as clean and as odour-free as possible. Great job Dad!

Sparkles the cat is with my father at pretty much every minute that he’s home. She has some other favorite spots to hang out beside draped over his keyboard. She has a cat tube at the picture window to sunbathe. She loves the piano stool in order to be directly in the middle of the living room. She is welcome to sleep at the foot of his queen size bed every night for sleepy time.

Sparkles the cat only tries to escape into the hallway of the apartment building on various occasions when my father gets a visitor. She doesn’t try to escape when he is going out and she must know that the rule is not to try to dash out the door when my master is going out.

There is a stacked washer and dryer built in to a closet at his entrance to the kitchen and my dad is worried that Sparkles the cat may get in behind the laundry unit and get stuck, so he anxiously tries to keep her from snooping around in there when the door is open. Dad says she is pretty funny and entertains him faithfully every day, and will insist on sitting outside his shower stall each day as he has a shower.

The family is quite impressed by this old cats ease, ability and her agreement to adapt to her new apartment life. I think most of all the family is happy knowing that our dad has this loving senior companion with who to spend his alone time.

I’m happy for your Dad that you have this companion, and thank you Sparkles for being a faithful friend to Dad, even though there is always a little bit of hair on dads keyboard.