Lora Lee 
Today marks a full week on Summer Break and it has taken some getting accustomed to the new routine. Gone are the days of the busy, strict schedules. For the next couple of months, things will be a little more relaxed. However, cats are creatures of routines. They thrive on them. Routines help keep them happy and healthy. They don’t understand sleeping in. They expect their breakfast at their normal times. So, that means summer break and my cats are really no different than any other time of the year.
Why Cats Need Routine
Cats in the wild survive by their routines. They sleep, hunt and eat on schedule. This ensures their survival. Our domesticated cats are no different. Because our cats are also territorial animals, they will adapt their routines to our household schedules. For mine, they know that they get breakfast around 7 am and their afternoon meal around 4ish. In the mornings, they receive their raw food first, then about 30 minutes later, they get their freeze dried raw to munch on during the day. This is their routine, Monday through Friday. They have adapted their routine a little over the weekends. But summer break is different.
I don’t have to wake up at 6:30 each morning. That means my babies will not receive their breakfast at 7. In just a week, this has caused some issues. Cactus has started to paw at the metal mini blinds to wake me up. Sloopy has occasionally thrown up some stomach bile. This happens when the gastric juices build up to help digestion. Because Sloopy is accustomed to eating at a scheduled time, he will purge these gastric juices if he doesn’t eat. And, we have had the occasional fights break out. Some of my cats get “hangry” and take out their hunger frustrations on each other. Emphasizing that cats need their routines to be happy and healthy.
Finding a Compromise
Because I refuse to wake up at 6:30 am during the summer, we had to find a compromise. Each morning, I woke up a little later. We are now at a comfortable 8ish each morning. My cats seem to have adapted to this new time fairly well. In order to help ease they potential morning hunger pains, I have started given them a little bit more freeze dried in the evenings. This has seemed to help curb any hunger issues in the mornings and helped them to adjust to their new Summer Break routine. At least until school starts again and we have to readjust our routine again.
‘Cats will amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw.’ – Terry Pratchett
