I have heard the phrase “your pet inherits your personality” a lot over the years, but I never really took it seriously. I had had a few pets, but I never noticed them change their identity to match my family.

That was until My wife and I got Milo, Our lovely Tuxedo cat.

For my whole life prior to getting married, I was more of a dog person. MY family always had dogs growing up, and the closest I got to having a cat was when I was 4 years old and had a cat “Follow me home” (apparently, I just picked him up off the street and brought him home. From what I was told, he was a stray on the streets).

Fast forward to 2020, and my wife and I had the opportunity to re-home a cat from one of her friends. We brought him in and watched him disappear into the storage room for an entire day. Confused, I looked at my wife disappointed and said to her, “great, he already hates me.”

My wife just laughed and said, “Give him some time, this is normal for cats.”

Being a dog person, I was used to new pets being nothing but excited about being in a new area and exploring. I was not used to pets sitting in a corner out of sight and just… staring at you like you just insulted their entire bloodline. I followed my wife’s advice, and left him to continue his constant staring.

Waking up the next morning, I opened my eyes to find him sitting on my chest and staring into my soul.

For reference, this is how he stares

Now waking up to a new animal that was hiding from you the entire day prior suddenly being a few inches away from your face while you slept can definitely jolt you awake. After calming myself down (and my wife, who was unfortunately awoken by me screaming), I looked back down at Milo and heard his meow for the first time

“Mooo”

Yes, Milo’s meow is more of a “moo.” Both me and my wife immediately laughed. My wife looked back down at Milo and said, “are you a hungry MooMoo?”

The nickname stuck like glue. To this day, we call him “MooMoo” more than Milo.

Now Milo is a very affectionate, cuddly, and kind cat… To me. Aparently, Milo does not like any other people in the world other than Me. Heck, Milo only tolerates my wife and will sometimes let her pet him. He refuses to be touched by any other person. He has been known to grow or hiss at new people if they get to close (allegedly, I have never seen this in person).

When I am home, Milo refuses to leave my side. As soon as I sit down, he jumps up on my lap, lays across my chest, and positions himself where he is as close as possible to my face. He will also try to lick my ear, which is bizarre and not tolerated by me. Because of this, a simple relaxing evening watching TV turns into a constant battle of placing Milo back down on my lap and watching him try to sneakily get back towards my head.

Milo also has a nightly routine that he follows to a T. Milo is used to both of us going to bed around 9:00 or 9:30. So once the time gets around there, he begins the routine.

The first thing he does is sit right at the end of the hallway that leads to our bedroom, and stares at us. I swear, I have never seen him blink once he enters this portion of the routine. He doesn’t meow, he doesn’t make any sort of cry, he just stares. He will stay in this position until either we decide to go to bed, or about 9:45 (whichever comes first).

If we are still up after 9:45, Milo will begin phase 2 of his nightly routine. He will slowly walk towards the bedroom door and lay down right in front of it. This is when he enters a period of time my wife and I lovingly call “Sad Boy Hour.” Once he has gotten comfortable in front of the bedroom (regardless of if the door is open or not), he will begin to make the most dramatically sad meow. Milo is welcome to go into the bed at any point in the evening, and he knows that we will be into the bedroom at some point in the night. No, Milo demands that we go to bed at that moment, and it takes a while for him to stop making us feel guilty and go to bed.

Regardless of if he is asleep or not, phase 3 is my favorite part of the routine. At this point, my wife and I have decided to turn in for the evening and we head to bed. As soon as the light turns on, Milo is up and at the foot of the bed. This time, he is performing his cutest and most excited Moo’s (not a typo, he moos when he is happy). That’s because he knows he is getting his nightly snacks. After he has got his nightly snacks, he slowly walks up to the pillows, and lays across my wife’s back pillow (my wife usually uses only one or two of her pillows, while I regularly use all three of mine). This single pillow has been designated as Milo’s spot, and he sleeps there every night. Milo will usually sleep soundly through the night and will refuse to leave the bed till I get up. I emphasize usually, because Milo does have his moments of zoomies at 2:30 in the morning. Of course, my wife and I have a name for this too: “Demon Hours”.

I am not kidding about Milo not leaving the bed until I do, by the way. Once, I was severely ill, and Milo only left the bed to use the litter box or quickly eat some food. As soon as he was done, he was right back to my side, purring away and sleeping soundly. My wife was actually worried that he was sick too and was checking on him throughout the day. She figured out that no, Milo was not sick. Rather, Milo was so worried about me, that he wanted to be by my side until I felt better.

Milo definitely is an odd cat, but he is absolutely my cat. Any time someone tells me that he was mean to them or refused to be touched by them, I just laugh and tell them, “Yea he does that, sorry!” Milo is a good cat, and I can’t think of our life without him.

So, to all my animal loving readers. I hope you have the opportunity to take a second to watch how your animal goes through their daily lives. I’m sure you’ll also start to notice some of their routines and quirks too. If you have already noticed their quirks, please share them! I love reading funny stories about people’s pets, and I know my wife will love them too!

Finally, if you guys enjoyed learning about Milo, let me know! I have plenty of stories about him, like how he reacts to going to the vet or how he has adjusted to our daughter.