Honestly, I’m asking. It’s not a rhetorical question. I’m house sitting at a house with 3 cats, and I’m having a hard time.

I’ll admit, I know very little about cats. We didn’t have pets when I was growing up, and the only pet I’ve had as an adult was a sweet-natured Yorkie. So when I agreed to watch these cats, I had to admit to their owner that I know little about cat behavior except what I’ve seen when binge-watching “My Cat From Hell”. She told me that doesn’t count.

We’ve actually gotten along pretty well, these cats and I. Except when I want to do something like write on my laptop (where is the Himalayan right now? She’s the one who usually springs daintily onto my keyboard, strolls around and curls up on the keys).

A couple of days ago I decided to try to do a soft chalk pastel drawing of a branch of their dogwood with its beautiful pink blooms. I went out front, took some pics with my phone, then set it up in front of me on the kitchen table with my art supplies.

When I pulled out my pastels and pencils, the big, affable cat jumped up to check them out. I didn’t mind–he was just being curious. After he was done with his inspection and jumped down, I drew a sketch. This is the photo I was using for reference:

Pretty flowers, huh? I don’t have a photo of the sketch, sorry. I wasn’t planning on blogging about it, until Big Boy jumped up again and SAT ON MY ARTWORK.

See the pink to the left of his tail? That’s my first dogwood flower, potentially being butt-erased by a cat. I mentally shrieked when he sat down, but just sat frozen, watching as he settled in. I was worried a loud noise or quick move might cause a bad outcome for my picture.

This cat really seems to like me–he curls up with me on the sofa, he rubs up against my legs while purring several times a day, and follows me around like a little puppy. Good thing for him I like him, too. I waited until he was done with what I figured was attention seeking (he sure got it!), then retrieved my picture after he eventually got bored and hopped off the table.

It doesn’t seem worse for wear–I still have some detail work to do on the bottom petal, then have the whole rest of the picture to finish. But I’ve learned my lesson–I’ll wait to finish this picture when I get home.

Where there are no cats to potentially butt-erase my efforts.