Jo, the Alien Cat

"She is an alien cat, and if you're not sure, just ask my husband."

Have you ever had a cat that you thought seemed a little "off?" Well, we did, too, and we call her Jo. Jo looks like any other normal cat that people would have, but don't let her calm exterior fool you. Jo is an alien cat, and if you're not sure, just ask my husband.

First of all, Jo looks spaced out. Now, earth cats are known for being alert and aware of their surrounding, right? She is aware of her surrounding, but she sometimes seems a bit dazed. In fact, most of the time she has a very spaced out look on her face, as if caught by surprise at being in this strange place.

Jo has quite a few strange habits that make us suspect her alien status, as well. For one thing, she has a blue plastic flat toy shaped like a mouse, with a big spring with a red ball for a tail, that she carries around as if it is one of her kittens, holding it in her mouth, back straight, and moving it to various locations around the house. My husband calls it her space ship, and this has him even more convinced that he comes from another planet.

Another strange and unusual habit that Jo has is that she uses toilet paper. I kid you not. And I don't blame her, because with that smell, it's definitely worth covering up! What she does is do her business in her litter box, and then scratch the box, scratch the walls, and scratch the floor for about five minutes straight. Then she looks for a piece of paper, drags it to the box, and covers her brown nugget, like toilet paper. We figure that on her planet, the cats are more advanced, and all use toilet paper for their bathroom duties, and she feels compelled to do it here.

"Her mission: to make sure that we never sleep all the way through the night."

One more thing that has made us wonder if Jo is an alien is her nocturnal habits. Now, all cats are known for being busy creatures during the night time hours, something to do with their tiger heritage or something. But Jo is busy in a different way.

She has a habit of coming into our room around 3 a.m., usually about the time I just go into my R.E.M. sleep, and rubbing her face and butt right into our face. She doesn't do this just once, but several times until one or both of wake up. After she has woken us up, she purrs so loudly that my teenage stepson who sleeps downstairs usually wakes up and yells out something unspeakable.

Then after the face and butt rubbing ritual, she proceeds to dig all ten of her claws into my raw skin, kneading to her heart's content. This makes her even more happy, and she purrs loudly. I pet her, and give her loves, and after about fifteen minutes, she hops away, content at having accomplished her mission. Her mission: to make sure that we never sleep all the way through the night.

Sometimes she gets a bit overwhelmed by life, and she is a bit strange, but we still love her, and she loves us

We love Jo, the alien cat. Admittedly, she is a bit weird, but we love her. And if I thought she could read, I would never write a hub that would make her feel bad about herself. She and Shiloh have never had the close friendship I dreamt for them, but they tolerate each other, and have their close moments.

Jo gave us kittens this summer, and she was an absolutely amazing mother. I guess all the practice with blue mouse she carries around paid off, because she was an ace with those little ones. We kept one of the kittens, Gray Eye, and now she has had one more batch of kittens. She is doing a fantastic job with them as well.

Jo is a very loving animal, and is always concerned about everyone and everything. Sometimes she gets a bit overwhelmed by life, and she is a bit strange, but we love her and she loves us. We are glad we brought Jo home on that sad day that Shiloh was gone, even if they never were the best friends I had imagined. 

Jo, the alien cat, is our alien cat, and we love her to bits!