My Cats and I - An Insight Into Cat Behaviour

One rainy day back in October 2009, we stumbled across a local cat
protection website. We browsed through the website and found two wee
cats aged two years old - brother and sister who were needing to be
rehomed. One of their owners had passed away and the other decided
they no longer wanted the cats and so informed the cat protection that
if they didn't take them, then they'd be left on the street. The two
cats are indoor cats and would never have survived the outdoors. Thats
when we stepped in and requested to take them in and after the cat
protection visited our home, they decided we were suitable owners.
Later that day we went and got them and we instantly fell in love with
them, and although they were friendly, it was obvious that the
upheaval had made them timid and frightened.The first few weeks were
dedicated to breaking them into their new home, where we grew to love
them and learned about their personalities, but once they had settled
in, they began rampaging up and down the stairs everyday - which is
nice until they decided to go "scat cat" and rip the wallpaper, dig at
the carpets, and spend the whole night meowing and crying for our
attention. So we decided to try setting a proper bedtime routine for
them - they're not allowed in the bedrooms, they only get limited
amounts of biscuits and treats, and we've tried placing pepper on the
walls to stop them scratching the wallpaper alongside moving their
scratch post so they can access it easily. As for the meowing at who
knows what hour of the night? well we decided that we would place them
both on blankets before we go to bed and turn all the lights off this
didn't work, and they began chasing each other round the house all
night as well so we gave in! they meow to their hearts content,
however we've found we all have a much sounder sleep if we play with
them right before bedtime and turn the lights out so they become tired
and sleep most of the night.When the cats want their Go Cat biscuits
they come through meowing at us to give them to them, we only give
them out as a treat - ie small handfuls two or three times a week and
we ensure we play with them for at least an hour everyday.We have a
coal fire, and when the cats first arrived with us, we made a rule
that they weren't allowed past the fire hearth and whenever they
pushed their luck to get closer to the fire, we would move them back,
and after roughly a month they never did it again and now happily stay
away from the fire.Apart from disciplining them like children, we
treat them like children too. They love nothing more than being picked
up for a cuddle, they love being played with, they love cuddling each
other and cleaning each other and they also give us the best welcome
in the morning. When we get up in the morning they get so excited to
see us that they roll on our feet and chase after us. They purr, meow
and give lots of attention to us and were always happy to see them. In
fact, we work from home as a family business, and when we go to work
at 8:45am they come to the office and we have blankets placed on the
work desks for them where they sleep cuddled into each other. We get
them up for lunch break and they come back to the office after lunch
is over and go downstairs to play at 5pm when were all finished work
for the day.Our cats have been with us almost a year now and it feels
like a lifetime. Any cat can adapt to a new home, its up to you to
discipline and treat them properly. If you talk to them aggressively
then they will be aggressive towards you, if you are in a bad mood
your cat will avoid you, you should never take your moods out on any
pets your have. Far from being saints, we know we treat our cats very
well, and they look after us just as much as we do them - we've
genuinely never been happier.