Making a run for it

Our roommate’s pregnant cat (who I’m not even sure she realizes is pregnant) has taken to hanging out in our room. Normally this is fine, as C and I usually leave the bedroom door open so all the cats can come in and out (and so we can verify that our roommate is still alive - if we didn’t leave our door open to see her coming and going from time to time, we’d be convinced she’d died in her room). However, she now seems to have gone all cat-preggers-crazy, and whenever the other cats get near them she hisses like crazy and scratches and bites. Naturally, if we had to choose between a pregnant short-haired cat and a bunch of long-haired teenager cats, we chose Leia (the pregnant one). This is generally a good policy as she’s the most affectionate and friendly of the cats for now, and she’ll sit in our room for long periods without moving, so we don’t have to worry about letting her out all the time.

Unfortunately, there are a few bad side effects to rooming with a pregnant cat.

1. Petting can be risky; sometimes she’s all about it, sometimes it results in the scratching and the biting.
2. Moving guilt: she’s so pregnant now that I feel guilty moving her, so if she crawls into my spot while I’m up I can’t exactly pick her up and plop her elsewhere. Instead I look like a mother who’s coddling her child; please move honey, if you move I’ll give you a snack, or let you play nintendo, or let you stay up an hour later tonight. Except these cats don’t have snacks or opposable thumbs, and I’m pretty sure they’re nocturnal. So I usually just “shoo” her until I’m tired of shoo-ing and move my set-up elsewhere.
3. Staring: I don’t know if this is a pregnant thing or a cat thing or just a weirdo thing, but sometimes she just sits on the foor and stares at me. Like, “I will kill you with my claws” staring. Gah. She’s doing it right now. Somebody help?
4. Potential cat damage: She waits outside our door every morning, sometimes clawing under the door and scratching at the rug. If, god forbid, you forget she’s outside the door when you get up in the morning, you run the risk of stepping on her as she bolts through the door for the bed, or the closet, or the pile of blankets in the corner.
5. Inconvenient affection: For example, the cat crawling onto the keyboard of my laptop and just staring at me, waiting to be pet.
6. Uh, Birth: I’m not really down with placenta on the carpet, but she seems to be nesting in about three distinct places, including my side of the closet.

But other than that, it’s a regular party.