Happy Birthday, Furio!

Today is Furio Giunta Kurczewski's birthday! He's four years old, which roughly translates to about 16 in people age or about 28 in people-maturity. Cats mentally mature really fast in their first two years. I read that a 1 year old cat is equivalent to a 12 year old child, a 2 year old cat is equivalent to 20 and once they're adults it slows down to about four people years per actual year. I've never had cats before and so it's been fun for me to watch and see that the author was right, at least in Furio's case. As far as attitudes go, you can find an equivalent in humans. The first year when Furio was little, he wanted to be with us all the time. He was cuddly and playful. The second year, he was a teenager. He started to assert his independence and didn't want us clinging to him all the time. He spent a lot of his time being moody and wanting to be left alone. And he was on the phone all the time! Ok, not really. :D Then this last year he started to feel that Mom and Dad are ok again. While he'll never be a kitten again (too bad because he was the most adorable kitten on the planet) and he still isn't big on being picked up and cuddled, he will come lay against you and watch tv.

Now with Meadow, the maturity theory isn't quite as cut and dried as with Furio. With the Furman, I can definitely see the parallels. With Meme, it's a much blurrier line. She still, to a large extent, acts like a baby. She plays like a kitten a lot and is still a cuddler. Even though she's two, Meme is just starting to go through something roughly like her teenage years. Before this last couple of months, you could pick her up - no matter what she was doing - and she'd snuggle in and purr. Now the snuggling is on her terms only. With Furio, if you picked him up when he wasn't feeling it, you risked bodily injury. He did not tolerate it. Period. With Meme, she doesn't scratch but she struggles and you can practically see her thinking, "Come on, Mom."

Too bad they don't stay babies forever.