Five for Friday: Eloise Joy

On Monday, my sweet darling Eloise turned 5 years old! To celebrate, here’s a whole Five for Friday post dedicated to her.

1) Sleep

Eloise likes to sleep in many areas around the apartment. Her favorite places, in no particular order:

• My office chair (and if I’m sitting in the chair, she forces me to scooch over so that we can sit there together)
• The top platforms of the cat tower
• The ottoman under my desk (originally bought so I could have a place to rest my feet but now mostly resides there for Ellie)
• One particular spot on the couch (in between cushions 1 and 2)
• My bed (she’ll usually lay here all morning long)
• Under the quilt on my bed (this happens every now and then, and it reminds me of Dutch who also loved burrowing under blankets)

She doesn’t sleep with me every night but more nights than not, I’ll wake up to find her curled up on me – either my back (if I’m sleeping on my stomach), my hip/thighs (if I’m on my side), or my belly (if I’m on my back). Sometimes she will have wriggled her way in between my legs. I love waking up to find her sleeping on me. I just get to pet a sleepy, satisfied cat while I slowly wake up!

2) Toys

Toys are so individual, aren’t they? Dutch didn’t play with toys at all. Chip just wants to destroy toys as fast as possible. And Lucy loves all of the toys she gets (they just don’t last long, thanks to Chip, sigh). Eloise is my cat that loves a good toy! She most especially loves the small toys that she can bat around the apartment. At least a few times a day, I will hear her meowing in the bedroom and find her happily playing with one of her catnip toys. She bats them around up onto my bed, around the bedposts, underneath doorframes, all around the living room… I honestly find the toys in a different location every night! Right now, this candy-shaped Christmas toy and fish taco are her favorites. These are the toys I bought for, like, $3 at Target on a whim. She also loves the catnip toys from Tacocat Creations (those have been so well-loved that I eventually have to throw them away because she destroys them). And, of course, crumpled-up pieces of paper, hair ties, receipts, etc., are much loved by her.

It brings me great joy whenever I see her playing with these toys. If I catch her in the act, she’ll look at me like she’s embarrassed to be caught and I’ll say in the cringiest voice, “Were you PLAYING?!” She loves it. I know she does.

3) Boxes, bags, scratch houses, oh my!

Eloise is the kind of cat who will jump into any box or any bag that is deep enough for her to sit in. If there’s an empty reusable grocery bag sitting on the floor, she wants to hop into it. Whenever I get a package, I’ll empty out the box and then set it in the living room for her. “Here’s a box for you!” I say to her. She loves to sit in a box and then just stare judgmentally at everyone around her, as if daring you to say something. It’s the funniest thing! Her expression is to die for.

She also loves a good scratch house. She had a taco truck at one point, but it started to get torn up pretty quickly and I eventually had to throw it away. But her groovy bus, that thing has stuck around for years now. My mom bought her this bus for her birthday one year, and whenever she goes inside it, I pretend she’s taking a trip to my mom’s house. The visual of her just zooming along the roads in her bus makes me giggle every time. She’ll use the scratch pad in the groovy bus, but mostly just likes sleeping in its confined space.

4) Conversations with a cat

Eloise is my chatty cat who happily meows at me all the time. I love having conversations with her, although I’m sure she’s annoyed that I’m not actually answering the questions she’s asking me since I don’t speak cat. She tends to be the most chatty right before I go to bed. If I go into my room to put my water cup on my bedside table and plug in my phone, she’ll run into the room after me, jump on the bed, and start loudly meowing at me. “Are you going to bed, Mom? Do you have everything you need? You’re not going to watch those weird ASMR videos again, are you?” Yes, yes, and of course I am. Sometimes, I’ll hear her meow “MAMA?” really loudly. It sounds like she’s trying to find out where I am, and it’s so cute. I’ll say, “What’s up, Ellie?” and she’ll come running over to me from the bedroom. Listen, I know she’s not saying “Mama” and it just sounds like she is, but let me have my fun, okay?

5) Velcro kitty

I call Eloise my “Velco kitty.” She’s never far from my side, always needing to know where I am. Sometimes it feels like she’s literally Velcro-ed to me, such as when she’s sitting next to me in my office chair or sleeping on my stomach at night. Whenever I open the shower curtain after finishing a shower or when I get up from the tub after a bath, there she is: hanging out right outside the bathroom door. If she hears me talking to my mom on the phone, she’s right there, either prancing back and forth on my desk in front of my phone or sitting right next to me, as if listening intently to our conversation. She’s needy for pets at all times and will even poke me in the middle of the night if I’m sleeping instead of petting her. But honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love our bond and I love that we’re so connected like this. I really didn’t expect to have such a strong bond with a cat. Aren’t they aloof and want their alone time? Nope, just a myth. Eloise (and Lila, too) are affectionate and sweet and desperate for attention. It’s my favorite thing about them.