One of the things I'm very concerned about, with the coming baby, is how our cats will react. Babies seem to have a lot of qualities that cats don't like: they're loud, erratic, and about the size of a predator. Fortunately, when friends with babies have visited, the cats seemed to hide more than be defensive.
Still, we want to do everything we can to smooth the introduction. I've come across a lot of good bits of advice in books, on the internet, and from friends. One of the best sources of information came from a pamphlet from the Humane Society of the United States that Miss J's doctor gave us. (The pamphlet we received was a bit different from the one on the website.) One suggestion was to play a CD of baby sounds for your pets, to get them used to all of the screaming, wailing, and gurgling in their future. That seemed like a good idea for our noise-averse cats, so I ordered one from Preparing Fido, and it came late last week.
So far, we've only played it twice for about five minutes at a stretch. Both times, the cats stared at the speakers with horrified curiosity and got very nervous and jumpy. (I found it very interesting how strongly they reacted to the baby sounds versus music or sounds from the TV, which they don't seem to care about at all. Why the difference?) In any event, the CD seems to be doing its job -- and since we have about three months before the baby arrives, hopefully the cats will adjust to these strange sounds.
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