Cat Manual?

One of the things I’m finding hardest about having Milo, is that I don’t always know what I’m doing.  Living alone, and having never had cats as pets before, I’m pretty much doing it blind.  I find myself worrying about him unnecessarily.  For example, yesterday I was speaking to my sister in law, and telling her how Milo will often get distracted from playing with his favourite toy, to gnaw at his leg, or scratch his ear.  I was concerned he must be feeling itchy if it was stopping him mid-pounce!  She said it’s perfectly normal.

He also wolfs down his food the moment its laid down which, from stereotypical cat generalisations, I believed cats didn’t do.  I thought they grazed at their food throughout the day.  So Milo wolfing his food straight away was a bit alarming, and I thought I was underfeeding him.  A few days of thoroughly weighing out his food and a quick re-read of the back of his food packet reassured me I was/am feeding him the correct amount for his weight.  He is obviously just a food-focused cat!

One of the other main things that had me worried, was when he goes on his ‘mad 5’ around the house.  He will bomb it around the place, ears back, eyes wide.  I thought he’d terrified himself the first time he did it.  It wasn’t until he did it when my parents were visiting that I understood it was just a way of burning off energy.  I thought he was running away from something.  Apparently this is a normal thing as well.

Wouldn’t it be so much easier if cats came with a manual!?