A Day in the Life of Eloise and Lila

I told you guys I was going to steal knit read cats hockey’s post idea and take you through a day in Eloise and Lila’s life, and here it is! I recorded their goings-on on Monday. They were probably a little disturbed at the amount of pictures I took of them, but they did it for the good of the blog. Let’s get into it!

7:00 a.m.: My alarm wakes me up and I’m happy to find Eloise sitting on me, so I give her lots of pets before making her move so I can get up. I’m not sure where Lila is – she jumps on and off the bed throughout the night. As I start moving around, Eloise meows at me over and over again. I like to think she’s telling me good morning but she’s probably asking when breakfast will be served. Sigh.

7:30 a.m.: The girls are fed but only eat for a few minutes before they want to take a break. Eloise perches herself on the corner of my desk so she can see what’s going on outside. Lila stretches herself on the couch and takes a nap. I make oatmeal and coffee for breakfast and eat it while reading blogs.

8:05 a.m.: I start my morning routine (skincare, emptying dishwasher, getting dressed, etc.). Lila has relocated to the cat tower for another morning nap. Eloise follows me around while I move around the apartment, meowing at me when I’m not giving her enough attention.

8:45 a.m.: I sit down to start my workday. Lila snoozes in the cat tower while Eloise jumps up on my desk and spends about 15 minutes staring out the window. And then she curls up on the blanket I keep on my desk for a morning nap.

10:00 a.m.: I take a quick break to switch out my laundry and then comment on a few blogs. Eloise is, of course, right next to me. I went into my bedroom to hang up a few shirts I didn’t want to put in the dryer and came out to her sitting on the dining room table, as if to say, “What are we doing now, Mom?” Lila has not left her snoozing post on the cat tower; she’s very much in her own world.

10:30 a.m.: Back to work for me! Lila is still in the cat tower while Ellie is all over the place: staring out the window, sitting on the floor and staring off into space, running around the apartment, etc. She also tries to steal my snack wrapper once I’m finished with it. Eventually, she settles down on the desk blanket for a nap.

11:15 a.m.: I am getting really sleepy and decide to take a nap (normally, I’d feel guilty about doing this but now that I know my daytime exhaustion has a reason behind it, I have come to accept it’s something my body needs right now). Eloise jumps up on the bed with me and proceeds to poke me with one of her claws over and over again, which is not my favorite! Lila also comes up on the bed and she spends the first 30 minutes of the nap with me. At some point, Eloise jumps off the bed and I snooze until I feel her poking me again, ugh. That’s when Lila jumps off the bed.

12:30 p.m.: I finally emerge from my slumber and the girls have taken up different spots in the living room: Eloise on the desk and Lila on a bed. When I go into the kitchen for lunch, I turn around to find both of them on the dining room table, staring at me. It’s treat o’clock, they think! I give them some yum-yums (as we call them in our house) and they gobble them up.

12:45 p.m.: I sit down at my desk with lunch and start working through some tasks. The girls settle down for the start of their afternoon naps! Lila falls asleep on the floor of the living room, nestled on the new cat pad I got her at the Tampa CATstravaganza. Eloise is in her usual place on my desk.

2:00 p.m.: I got up to throw away some trash and use the bathroom, so of course, Eloise had to follow me around while I did that. Lila used the time to relocate to the cat tower again for more afternoon snoozes. Eloise played for a bit in the room (I could hear her meowing, which she does when she’s batting around her favorite catnip toys) and then came back out to her desk blanket for a nap by the window. I get lots of tasks done, like working on June content assignments for our writers and answering emails that come in, while the girls snooze and snooze and snooze. Such a hard life!

I love when her little feetsies poke out like this. 

4:00 p.m.: I log off work a little early since I have my dietician appointment at 4 p.m. The girls continue to snooze the late afternoon away but about halfway through my appointment (which I do virtually), Eloise wakes up and trots over to my dining room table where I’m talking to my dietician. My dietician loves seeing Eloise on camera so we spend some time fawning over her before going back to our convo. Eloise paces back and forth on the camera while rubbing herself against me for a bit, and then she jumps off the table and cleans herself while sitting on the floor in the living room. (Lila, as you may have guessed, has not moved from the cat tower.)

We call this the Eloise Death Glare.

5:10 p.m.: Dietician appointment complete! Eloise joined me for the last 10 minutes and then spent some time on my desk, staring outside. And then the scariest thing happened! Thankfully, Lila had enough foresight to burrow under the couch but Eloise was sitting by the door when someone knocked on the door. Eloise scurried into my bedroom so quickly! Whew, crisis averted.

It was my mom, btw. She needed to take a shower (she’s been shower-less at her house for three weeks now, but the shower should be up and running tomorrow!), so she stopped by before a nail appointment. Eloise doesn’t usually hide from my mom, but she was feeling shy today, I guess. She only came out when my mom was taking a shower.

5:40 p.m.: I feed the girls (although they’re still hiding) and start working on dinner. (I made this and it was delicious!) My mom left a little before 6 p.m. and a few minutes after that, I saw Eloise sitting on the window ledge, grooming herself. I popped dinner in the oven and then sat down at my computer to work on this post. Eloise jumped on the table to rub herself against me a few times, and then jumped off to sit on the desk and stare outside. And then I caught her staring me down from across the room so I told her I loved her, and she meowed and then jumped off the desk and ran over to me for extra love. Gosh, that girl is so sweet!

6:30 p.m.: Apparently, I wasn’t paying enough attention to Eloise. I had been cleaning up the kitchen while I waited for my dinner to finish up and she started meowing loudly at me and then ran into the bedroom. So, I followed her and sat down on the floor so she could rub herself all over me and do front flips over my legs. Our typical routine! Lila is still in hiding. 🙁

6:45 p.m.: Right as I took my dinner out of the oven, Lila appeared! I told her how much I missed her and she said, “Time for more yum-yums?” So I gave them each a small portion of Greenies and then got my dinner ready. I sat on the couch and watched a few episodes of New Girl while I ate dinner. Lila sat beside me, sometimes sticking out her paw to ask for pets and sometimes just sleeping soundly. (Eloise was perched on the desk blanket, snoozing.)

8:00 p.m.: I get up from the couch and start a bubble bath. So relaxing! Eloise comes into the bathroom to ask for pets and then she sits on the ledge of the bathtub for a period of time before leaving to eat dinner. Lila stayed on the couch while I was taking my bath.

8:30 p.m.: I spend a little time working on this post and while I do, Lila jumps up on the dining room table where she proceeds to stick out her paw for pets, bump the top of her head against my hand, rub herself against my laptop screen, lick the screen, and eventually plop herself down on the table for a quick snooze.

8:45 p.m.: I start my nighttime routine (scoop litter boxes, nighttime skincare, tidy apartment, start dishwasher, etc.). Eloise keeps a close eye on me from the desk while Lila stays splayed out on the dining room table without a care in the world.

9:15 p.m.: My mom Facetimes me so I take a break to chat with her. I sit on the couch and eventually, Lila plops down next to me where she shows me her belly and requests lots of pets. I’m not sure where Eloise was at this time.

9:45 p.m.: Back to my nighttime routine! Lila plops down on her cat mat in the living room while Eloise is all over the place. When I was cleaning up the kitchen, she was sitting on the dining room table and staring at me. When I was doing my skincare routine, she was in my room, playing with her favorite catnip toy and meowing like crazy. She ate some dinner, climbed up on the kitchen counters to inspect things, ran around the apartment meowing. She also spent some time in the litter box, which I know because she emerged from my room at one point with litter dust coating her black fur. Oh, girl. She was having a good time by herself, I’ll tell you that.

Cat existential crisis. What’s she thinking here? Wrong answers only. 😉

10:20 p.m.: It’s finally time for me to turn off all the lights and head to bed! The girls join me on the bed here and there. They like to jump on and off throughout the night. Lila jumps up and requests pets by showing me her belly, so I oblige. Eloise finds her way between my legs but is mostly keeping an eye on where Lila is. At one point, they both jump off the bed and chase each other into the living room and then I hear some hissing. Sisterly love!

11:15 p.m.: Lights out for me! I tell the girls good night and that I love them. 🙂