The truth about sharing an apartment with a cat

When I decided to get a cat in Paris, a lot of people were telling me not to. For various reasons. Our apartment was too small, it would smell really bad, we didn't have enough room for the litter box, we didn't have enough time... I heard it all, but when Matt and I got the possibility to save a little kitten, we didn't hesitate for a second. And let me tell you, I don't regret this decision at all!

So, let me address some of the most common stereotypes about cats:

1. Cats cost money

Twice a year, you'll place a huge order on Zooplus with everything your cat needs. You'll order 32 kg of cat food and 48 kg of litter. The delivery man will hate you and you will hate yourself too while carrying that unbelievably heavy package up to your apartment. You'll then store everything and not spend a penny on your cat for the next six month, until you run out of everything and the story begins again.

2. Cats are time consuming

Cleaning the litter box and feeding the cat takes about 3 minutes a day altogether. Not bad, you might think, I have time for that. But beware: the moment you get home from work, your cat will need your attention. Your undivided attention. You will have to pet it with both your hands (yep, it has to be both of them and your feet too if your flexible enough), let it purr for at least 30 minutes and leave a million hairs on your nice black outfit. And if you try to cut this ceremony short or - even worse - check your phone at the same time, your cat will be very offended and ignore you for the next 48 hours.

3. Cats need space

...but only during the night. Your cat will happily sleep in a shoe box during the whole entire day, but the moment you turn off the lights to go to sleep, it will suddenly be in desperate need of a good work out. And so it will start running around your apartment, hitting the floor with its claws and creating its own motivational music of a loud variation of meows. And if you were to turn the lights back on? Well, your cat will stop, look at you for a second, yawn and go back to sleep.

4. Cats cause damage

This one is true. Cats love scratching your carpets. Climbing up curtains. Scratching the bottom of your sofa. Sleeping on freshly washed clothes. Jumping on the table and knocking everything off of it. Chewing on cables. Scratching your walls. Eating headphones. Sleeping on computers. Hiding every single pen you own under the carpet. Jumping on the TV. Chasing flies up the wall. Chasing fairy lights. Scratching you. Biting you. Putting litter everywhere. The list might go on for a while. You're always really mad when you see the damage, so you turn around to yell at your cat and - end up petting it instead because it's just so cute.

5. Cats need to go outside

...but only on the window sill. My cat is a total chicken, and getting it outside is close to impossible. Even if you manage to take it out the door without being scratched to death, it will just keep running back to your apartment door. Or the door of the apartment underneath yours, because cats clearly don't get the concept of stairs and different floors. And if you get out of the house? Well, my cat just pretends that it forgot how to walk and lies there like a piece of carpet. It plays this game until you give up and turn around, and then it jumps up and runs to your apartment... well, every apartment that's in the same spot as yours, on every single floor.



Seriously though, having a cat is a lot of fun and not much work at all. It's doesn't usually smell if you clean the litter box every day and change the litter once every two weeks (unless it eats something funny), it barely takes up space, it's very clean, and it can make due with a small apartment if you make sure that it has everything it needs. You do have to educate it when it's little (things such as "don't eat my food even if I leave the room" can be quite handy - and it can be done!), but then, you'll have the nicest little friend that meows when you come home and sits on your lap through Netflix marathons.