Cat Chic

How to Prepare Your Cat for the Arrival of a Baby Person

By Luna the Fashion Kitty

, October 4, 2013

OMG guys! Time flies and my baby brother is almost here and all this time I have been getting used to the idea (like I have any other option!). I know many are going thru the same thing and I want to share some tips FUR prepare us. I want to be clear that every furchild is different, so you might need to customize my tips.

Fur example, the hardest thing for me was to accept the fact that bedroom doors are closed fur me at night. I always hated closed doors, I would go and knock and knock and knock, not because I wanted to get in but because I wanted to come and go if I wanted! I have to admit that has been hard fur my momma as well.

Let’s start!

1. Will be the baby room be off-limits?

If it’s going to be off-limits, well, the solution is easy. Just maintain the door closed at all times, or you can install a screen door so you can hear the baby and we can see him or her.

Now, if the room won’t be off-limits then you need to make sure we won’t jump into the crib. I mean, not that we will hurt the baby, but we both can scare each other … anyways is a bad idea when the baby is little. I do suggest to use double-side tape around the crib! Many suggest put empty cans in the crib or spraying water, but I think that will only add more stress to us! I don’t know about you, but I might associate all those annoying stuffs with the baby … concluding the baby is a “bad thing,” too.

2. Get used to the three “S”s: sounds, smells, and sights

This is a tricky one because if your furchild is as smart as me, we are hard to fool. You can start using some baby purrducts on you, so we get familiar with the new smells but LET’S FACE IT, babies scent is soooooooo different from grown-ups! On another paw, it’s a good idea to invite furriends over who have babies. If your kitty decides to get near the baby, give him or her lots of praise and even a treat. Also you can play baby sounds fur your furchild, like crying babies, so we get familiar with the annoying sound; you might want to play this to your husband too!

PURRsonally I’m hard to fool, you need to give me the real thing. I have three kitty videos with birds and fish, etc., and is sooo boring fur me, I’m like ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Sooo fake! So my pawrents keep asking furriends to come over with their babies but nobody has come! But I have my BFF coming over often and she moves quickly and sometimes we have several kids at the time and I’m right there in the middle doing tricks fur them.

3. Have several kitty safe spots around the house

We like to have our space and to feel safe, so the baby shouldn’t take that from us. Make sure your furchild has beds and high spots to lay down and watch what’s going on.

Also at the beginning the house will be full of purrsons who come to meet the new baby, so plan ahead and give your furchild a place to be in peace. If you live in a small house like me, a nice cat tree and perches will do the trick. I’m lucky to be used to my daddy’s family coming over now and then, they are MANY, and I like to join the crowd.

4. Try to keep your furchild schedule intact!

This is very impurrtant! You should not neglect your furbaby when the baby purrson arrives. Dinner on time, daily cleaning kitty box, etc., keep it that way! We need to feel that our world haven’t change that much, at least the things that matter more: food, love and a nice clean kitty box.

I suggest you have more than one kitty box around when the baby comes, because in my case I will feel like peeing outside my box in seeking attention. Recently my daddy was traveling. He had been on kitty box duty and my momma didn’t clean my box at night, and I bitched meow meow in the morning. She didn’t pay attention so I pee in the laundry basket LOL Hey I don’t regret it one bit, I had to make a point!

5. Change our environment gradually

I know everyPAWdy want to set up the baby stuffs superfast and paint the room and everything. When you have a furchild you need to take another approach, do things in phases to let your furchild adjust. OMG I’m going to suffer A LOT on this one because my room will transform into the nursery. I’m going to keep my clothes in that closet so my scent will be there, but the rest? GONE!

My momma has just two months to do this, so she better be careful. I’m nervous. The good thing is that since I used to go to the office and changed offices several times, traveling, etc., somehow made me less picky about changes around me … so I’m counting on my past experience to hang in there!

Some “experts” advise that you should start paying less attention to your furchild while you are pregnant, so when you DON’T pay attention to him or her they don’t feel bad. I think that is DOG POOP! We are very emotional and we will resent the lack of attention anyway and we will miss the LOVE no matter how much time has passed. I mean, who can get “trained” to not feel? Who can get “trained” to receive less love?

My momma and daddy have been petting me with their feet! So when the baby comes they can hold the baby and pet me at the same time. Like any furst child (purrson or not), he or she will need even extra attention in the beginning and with time everything will come around.

Also it’s a good idea to take one of the baby blankets and give it to us. My momma says she is definitely doing that. And fur last, my PAWrents are planning to get me a calming collar and maybe some feline spray around the house. I used a calming collar when I went to vacations and I was super relaxed.

I hope you find my column useful, and please pray fur my nerves. As usual, feel free to follow me in Facebook, Twitter and furriend me here in Catster! And if you feel like DYING fur a furchild like me, please take a look to my purrsians in need on my website. Have a great weekend, my LunAddicts and thank you fur reading. Comment and share my column (yessss, I’m demanding all that in a nice way LOL).

Read more from Luna and about cats and babies:

About Luna: Luna is a Fashion Diva Extraordinaire, who has been a Catster style columnist for two years. She has been featured in many publications and was even mentioned in FORBES.com. She likes to shop and help Persian Cats that are homeless. She lives with her momma and daddy and is expecting a baby brother … she is not very happy with the future new addition to the family but is hanging in there.