Wally Spiers: Cats are so lovable

Sometimes as couples get older, they debate over whether to have another child. Babies are so cute and apparently that urge to have one more is difficult to resist.

It seems to be the same for cat lovers. Let’s adopt a kitten. They’re so lovable.

That is how we came to have Brewster, a long-haired, part-Siamese kitten rescue.

Oh, and he is cute. But like grandparents who suddenly remember just how much work children can be when they are left with their grandkids for a couple of days, we now recall just how much trouble a kitten can be.

Brewster is everywhere. Particularly everywhere you don’t want him to be.

Turn your head for just a second and he is in your food. Start to walk and he is under your feet. Try to sleep late and he is leaping on and off your bed in great manic jumps, zooming over, under and around anything in his path. People are just large trampolines, conveniently placed horizontally on the bed to give him better spring.

Worse yet, he learns from Sampson, our other rescued cat who we thought was the worst in the world until now.

We once had a safe haven on the kitchen counter, a place too high for Brewster to leap onto. But the other day, he was sitting calmly on the kitchen floor, for a change, and he saw Sampson gather himself and leap onto the lower stove top and thus onto the counter.

I swear you could see the wheels turning as Brewster walked to the stove top, looked up and then successfully launched himself onto a whole new kitten playground.

Now he sits on top of the coffeemaker, chewing on the fronds of a plant sitting on a shelf in the kitchen window. Or at least he did until a few moments ago when I heard a great crash and the sound of breaking glass.

Sure enough, he had pulled the plant down, which struck the glass coffee jar, knocking it to the floor where it now sits in pieces. At least he had the decency to run. Usually he just sits and looks at whatever he has destroyed and then begins playing with the pieces.

The destruction is bad enough, but he also puts himself in harm’s way when he darts into open closet doors or leaps onto strange places.

Last night he was sitting on my work bench downstairs as I worked on stained glass. I looked away to do something and when I looked back, there was a wisp of smoke rising from behind Brewster who had moved to the other side of the table and was sitting next to a hot soldering iron.

I snatched him up as the smell of smoking fur filled the air. He looked confused but thankfully his fur hadn’t burst into flame yet and he only suffered a few singe marks. I doubt he learned from the experience, but I did.

I know cats are supposed to sleep a lot, but kittens apparently don’t get that message for a few months. My wife can’t decide whether we just have forgotten how much trouble a kitten can be or whether this little demon really is worse than ones we have had before.

I’m amazed he isn’t in here now watching me type. He loves to help but has proven to be a lousy speller.

The only remaining safe places in the house are the top of the dining room buffet, 7 feet above the floor, a couple of high window ledges and the parakeets’ cage hanging high from the bathroom ceiling.

But, oh, he can be so cute.

This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 7:36 AM with the headline "Wally Spiers: Cats are so lovable."