My Cats: Stormi, Raini, Sunni and Snowi

I am bothered by something.  My daughter and my grandson live in the same town as I do.  We are extremely close and I spend lots of time with them at their apartment.  Ever since I rescued my feral, Snowi, I don't want anyone visiting me because I don't want Snowi to be stressed out.  It's bad enough that he has to deal with me, never mind strangers coming over.  Anyway, I feel very guilty when  don't spend enough time with my cats.  And no, I'm not a hoarder or a cat lady.  LOL.  I am 58 years old, my daughter is 41 and my grandson is 15.  So, I'm a young mother/grandmother.  The point here is that, do my cats miss me or stress out that I'm not home, when I'm not home.  On Saturdays and Sundays I usually go to visit my daughter/grandson and come home around 6:00.  I am home during the week - arriving @ 7:00 p.m. from work.  This is probably a silly story, but I just want to make sure that when I'm not home, my cats are still happy as they are when I am home.  I know they are happy when I arrive home because they immediately run to me and rub themselves on me and they don't even let me sit for one minute without climbing on my lap.  They purr and throw themselves on the floor with their stomach showing.  So, again, I know they are happy to see me.  Any advice?  Thank you.

Cats are creatures of routine. If you routine doesn't very, they will be used to it. It does sound like they are happy to see you, though. Spend some time with each of them and they should be fine.

Please don't get me wrong; I spend lots of time with them.  I brush them, I play with them - especially Snowi, he loves the laser light.  I talk them.  I have towels on each window sill so that when they climb on, they can be comfortable.  They are my babies.  My grandson sometimes gets upset and tells me that they are not human - I beg to differ - in a way.  They are human in a way because if they need to eat, if they feel pain, feel happiness, there has to be something human about them.  I like to learn more and more about cats so that I know what to do or not to do to stress them out.  I am constantly changing their water - because there's lots of dust in my apartment; I feed them well.  Anyway, thanks for your input.  I thank God he created animals; I thank God he gave me these four critters that do make my coming home in the evenings happy. 

I am sure you are the blessing to your cats that they are to you!  Don't stress so much, love and enjoy them,  they love you!   You are doing a wonderful thing  by loving and caring for them.

And they are creatures of habit and routine,  they are probably sleeping when you are not home!!

Thank you.  And, yes, I'm sure they are sleeping right now.  And thank you.

Ntorress, I struggle with this issue, too.  By way of background, Ritz is my first pet--first cat--ever.  Ritz was rescued four years ago by a friend of mine.  Semi-feral, my friend socialized her and her three brothers/sisters, I helped a little.  Ritz startles easily, assumes a fight or flight crouch for no good (to me) reason.  It took her six months before she came out from the sofa when ever my twin sister came over to visit.  She is much better now, however.

like you, I am gone for 11 hours a day during the week, and have lots of errands on the weekends.  I believe Ritz is happy when I am not at home; she loves to sunbathe and she sleeps a lot.  Some days I rush home just to be with her; and after she sniffs my clothing (she can tell a LOT about how my day went) and she eats, she goes back to what she was doing:  sunbathing, watching the birds/squirrels; sleeping:  generally ignoring me.  But comforted (I like to think) that I am home.

Ntorres1013, I have no doubt that you are the perfect parent for each of these kitties. They would not greet you at the door otherwise. I was trying to reassure you - llke KRZ said, they are probably sleeping the whole time you away

Thank you so much for that.  I know they love me just as much as I love them. 

Below are pictures of Snowi, my feral.  He's all by himself.  And then a picture of Raini, the one on the left, and then Sunni, on the right.  My oldest cat (she's five) Stormi, doesn't like me taking pictures of her.

ntorres1031 said:

Thank you so much for that.  I know they love me just as much as I love them. 

Below are pictures of Snowi, my feral.  He's all by himself.  And then a picture of Raini, the one on the left, and then Sunni, on the right.  My oldest cat (she's five) Stormi, doesn't like me taking pictures of her.

Click to expand...

Great pics!  I've never heard of a camera-shy cat before.  LOL