As you may know, I am now down to one cat. In case you were not aware (and in my own defense), I only had two. Also in my own defense, there was only one period in my life when I had more than two, which was when I lived with my ex-husband and a homeless alley cat adopted us and joined our existing two-cat family. Not without drama, I must admit, because he had to be fed in the main bathroom (the only room with a door, but that’s another story) so he wouldn’t eat everyone else’s dinner and maybe everyone as well. When we split up, I told him he had to take one of the three with him when he moved to Halifax, because I was pretty certain nobody would date me if I had that many cats. Long story short, he did and they did.
Anyhow, the best practice is that if you have more than one cat you have more than one litter box. Even at the cottage. The cat behaviour at the cottage is to languish outside for the most part, except when nature calls. According to my cats, nature is not an appropriate place for such things. Even though Henry is dead, we still have two litter boxes in the cottage laundry room. Dennis is quite happy with this. He chooses to do number one in one and number two in the other. What this means, other than two litter boxes to scoop, is that I have to move the number two box in and out of the laundry room to access my washer. That’s because of the new extra fridge (well, to be honest, only newish now) that takes up precious real estate in the laundry room. Come to think of it, maybe I’m just following the cat rule: one fridge per person. Anyhow, the cat indoor plumbing does not appear to be facing a reduction in seats any time soon.
It has also become clear to me that one cat is much easier than two cats. When you have two cats, you also have two cat cages. When it becomes apparent that one cat has been duped into a situation requiring cage transportation, the other cat finds the most inaccessible place to hide. Now that Dennis is the only feline to wrangle, the modus operandi is to take the cage out and open its door a few days before transport is required. Surprisingly, this actually works. Or at least it has worked once so far and is therefore guaranteed to never work again. You will know this implicitly if you have ever owned a cat. Scratch that (hah!). Owned is not a verb that should ever be associated with cats.
The other issue with multiple cats is what do with them when they are being transported to the cottage in the car and grocery shopping must take place on the way. In the summer. Previously, we left them both in the back, with the windows cranked, hoping that they would survive the food purchase. And they did. This time, with only one cat, we decided to take Dennis (in his cage) on a grocery store adventure. He got plunked into the top of the cart, via a bit of inventive geometry, and wheeled around. Despite having meowed for the entire car-ride, he shut up completely when confronted with a cat’s eye view of a weird place with all kinds of people and a strange sensation of moving without involving his paws. The cat food aisle probably blew his mind. I told the checkout clerk we needed to bring him in so he could pick out his treats himself. I think she believed me.