How My Cats "Adjusted" to the Pandemic

My husband and I have two cats, Memphis and Tully. We adopted Tully together a few years ago. Memphis has been with me since he was a kitten, before I even met my husband. While he likes my husband, and often goes to him for affection and food, it is me that he is most attached to.

If I am away from home for an extended period of time, Memphis becomes agitated and won't let me out of his sight, sometimes for days, after I return home. Heaven forbid I take a shower and close the bathroom door with him on the other side. I hear him crying the entire time.

I am employed part-time with a public library, and my work schedule can be all over the place, something that Memphis has somehow never been able to fully adjust to.

I remember my last day working the desk before we shut down. It was March 12th, and none of us had any idea of what was coming. Nearly a year later, and we still are not open to the public. I have worked most of that time from home, monitoring the library vestibules, where patrons go to pick up their holds, via Zoom and doing a lot of data entry.

That first week, when he realized I wasn't going into work, Memphis was thrilled. My husband was still working at the time, so that meant Memphis had me all to himself. Almost. Tully would also curiously seek me out, not sure why I was always around, but Memphis had made it clear from the first day we introduced the two that I was his human.

Then the store where my husband works also temporarily closed its doors. So that meant both cats had their humans 24/7. Tully got all the lap time she wanted! Both cats were elated.

After a while, though, Tully decided she needed to reclaim her alone time. She started hiding in new places for hours at a stretch, digging her way through closet storage to the hardest to reach corner, burrowing into piles of blankets, wedging herself behind furniture. We were concerned about this new behavior at first, but I read about other cats being sick of their humans never leaving and requiring some solitude, so I thought this might be it.

Memphis, on the other hand, continued to practically glue himself to my side. When I went out to work in the yard (since I was home every day, we decided to restart our garden) or take a walk, he would press himself against the window crying until I came back inside, and he would race to my side and throw himself against my legs, purring loudly. I'd say it was like he knew the dangers that lay in the outside world, but really, this was not unusual behavior for him.

After a few months, the library started to find things for us to do, but with nearly 16 hours fewer per week than I was used to (in the beginning), I still had a lot of free time on my hands. I ordered a puzzle and set it up in the spare room that we have dubbed the green room (because the walls are painted green).

Tully was thrilled! A new thing for her to lie on. Memphis was annoyed. Not because she could get on the table and he couldn't, but because she was in his room. At some point last summer, the cats had divided up the house.

The living room and kitchen are neutral territory, but they each have their specific perches and ends of the couch. Tully has tried to claim the bedroom, but it's not going well for her. Memphis has the green room, and Tully has what we call the library (because two of the four walls are taken up by bookshelves).

I think her claim on the library is quite brazen considering the room doubles as my office, so I spend a lot of time in here. (Yes, I am in the library right now.) Remember, I am Memphis's human, not Tully's. So while I am in the library, Memphis has limited access to me. And Tully is eating it up.

With my husband back to work, there is only one human for the cats to get attention from. Memphis discourages Tully from sitting on my lap while we're on the couch. But with me in the library, her territory, sitting at my desk, Tully claims all the lap time she wants.

Scandalized, Memphis at first tried to discourage this as well, but Tully would have none of it, and swatted at him whenever he came near. This ended with Memphis sitting in the doorway mewing sadly as he looked from me to her. It was a little difficult for me to get work done with this going on. Also Tully liked to headbutt my hands every time I tried to use the mouse or keyboard.

So I purchased a new perch for the window next to my desk. I put Tully's blanket on it, thinking that might encourage her to leave my computer alone. Birds like to gather in the bushes outside, and I know the cats love to watch birds as well as bask in the sun.

She was not persuaded. Memphis, however, was. Tully could not reach him to harass him while he was in the window perch. He loved it! Not only could he be close to me, but he could watch the birds and enjoy the afternoon sunshine.

So a truce was made. Memphis could lounge in the window perch (and nowhere else in the room), and Tully would curl up on my lap, one big happy family. She still headbutts my hands when I type or use the mouse, though. You can't win every battle. (And if I close the door to the room, she headbutts it repeatedly and cries.)

Tully no longer hides like she did last summer. She and Memphis have developed a routine. In the morning, Memphis snuggles with my husband on the couch in the living room, and Tully stays in bed with me. Tully will get up for breakfast, but then goes back to bed for a nap while Memphis naps on the kitchen perch in the sun.

After a couple hours of sun-napping, Memphis will join me in the living room. And if I have to get up and "go" to work (in the home library) before he has had his couch time with me, he gets very annoyed. Tully recognizes the signs of me getting ready for work, and is often waiting for me by my chair, ready for lap time.

Now that it's winter and cold, Memphis doesn't use the library window perch, so he is extra annoyed if he misses out on couch time with me. And if it's a day off, and I remain on the couch rather than relocate to my desk, Tully demands lap time on the couch, which Memphis has begrudgingly allowed her, though he does usually sit next to us and stare at her until she has had enough and leaves.

In the evenings, Memphis usually claims the couch. He has two preferred spots, by my feet on the chaise, or the cushion between my husband and me. Because even after eight years of all of us living together under the same roof, Memphis maintains that he has a bigger claim to me than does my husband. If he wakes up from napping in his tower across the room and sees my husband and me together on the couch, he jumps down, marches over, and wedges himself in between us. Often, Tully will wedge herself on the other side of my husband, out of Memphis's sight. Evenings are...cozy.

Bedtime can bring another battle. Memphis has slept in bed with me, usually curled up with my feet, since I first adopted him. Tully does not like this. Bedtime is her time to snuggle with my husband, and if Memphis jumps on the bed, she becomes indignant at the perceived interruption. He often waits outside the bedroom door mewing until I turn the light off, when he sneaks in under the cover of darkness, and Tully lets it slide.

I did start working in the branch again late last summer, but only a few hours every week. Memphis was immediately concerned, but learned to tolerate it. He was less thrilled when I started going in five evenings a week for three hours each, but luckily, my husband works days, so the cats have very little time without a human around.

Due to an injury, I have been home again for the past month, and the cats have slipped back into the "old" routine. When everything reopens again, and my schedule goes back to "normal" (is it still normal if it's been a year?), I know it will take them time to readjust.

We'll just have to keep doing our best. And I am sure they will come up with a new structure for themselves just as they did last year.