"What are you up to today?" The cold stare... A "deep skinship" session with my cat who came into the bathroom.

When I'm about to take a bath at home, my beloved cats come into the bathroom with me. The bathroom, a private room, is a dream space (paradise) where I can be alone with my cats. I can't help but enjoy "intense skinship" that is different from usual, and my cats look at me with cold eyes.

This time, I'm going to introduce the "excessive skinship" I actually do. Please laugh and say, "This person is really crazy about cats."

Skinship ① Hugging naked

Don't you feel that being naked with someone deepens your connection? I think there's an atmosphere of "we can do this because we're close."

Even if you want to be naked with your beloved cat, it's hard to do in everyday life. It would be troublesome if a delivery person suddenly came, right?

But in the bath, you can be naked with your cat! Imagine feeling that fluffy fur directly against your skin, not through clothes. ...See? Isn't it incredibly good?

Recently, at my house, Leon, a tabby cat, has started following me every time I go to the bathroom. Before, he would only wait in the washroom after my husband's bath, but perhaps he thought, "She might drown too," and started watching over me while I bathed.

Leon likes to sit on the bath lid and look down at me submerged in the tub. His gaze is so cute that I hug him nakedly many times, saying, "I love you!" "You're cute!" "You're the best!" "Thank you for being alive today!"

After hugging him, when I see the shed fur on my body, I sometimes deeply feel, "Ah, we are different species." It makes me high to think that cats are the best for being able to have such a close relationship even though we are different species.

Skinship ② Petting with wet hands to remove loose fur

Bath time is also a great opportunity to take care of loose fur that is usually hard to remove. The only one in my house who hates brushing is Giji, the calico cat. She has medium-length fur and sheds a lot, and needs brushing the most, but...

Even using a "glove-shaped brush" that even brushing-averse cats tend to tolerate didn't work. She resisted, saying, "I don't like it unless it's bare hands." She quickly runs away only at these times.

So, when Giji is in the washroom before bath time, it's a chance to brush her. I try my best to invite her in.

隠れきれてない、かくれんぼが尊い。 pic.twitter.com/UHQuenbCwQ

— ゆあ ｜ ライター🖊 (@yunc24291) August 28, 2020

Giji doesn't really get on the bath lid; instead, she likes to observe me by resting her paws on the tub. I don't miss that chance, so I extend my wet hand and pet Giji to remove the loose fur from her body.

お風呂場で「こんなところに入るなんて…」と驚かれてる。 pic.twitter.com/hhHZU4l3lu

— ゆあ ｜ ライター🖊 (@yunc24291) September 3, 2022

The trick is to shake my hand two or three times to flick off the water, because Giji dislikes being touched if my hand is too wet and will run away. (Information that no one needs)

While petting her, I've been telling her for over 10 years, "Please let me brush you someday," but those words never seem to reach her.

Skinship ③ Playing "pretend" with my cat

I'm actually quite conscious of what people think. Even at home, if I think my husband might come to the living room, I tend to get overly serious, thinking, "I have to be an adult!" (lol)

Perhaps that's why, in the private space of the "bathroom" where I can be alone with my cat, my inner child gets excited. What I often do is play pretend with my cat.

Yesterday, Giji came into the bathroom, so I invited her to "play office lady." The simple reason was that I had watched Bakarhythm's "Fictional Office Lady Diary" the day before and developed a yearning for the office lady life.

After explaining the setup, "Okay, Giji and I are colleagues. Let's go," I get into character. I continue to complain about my fictional boss and work, and Giji stares at me with a look that says, "What is this person doing?"

This surreal pretend play would surely be a scary sight from the outside. Thank you for always indulging me, Giji.

By the way, Kotaro, the brown tabby who is afraid of water and never enters the bathroom, watches my pretend play from the washroom with cold eyes. I'm aware of your cold gaze through the frosted glass door.

Skinship ④ Enjoying hide-and-seek for dear life

When I take a bath with my cat, for some reason, I desperately want to play hide-and-seek. I get a little excited wondering what my cat will do if I disappear from their sight.

おキャット様の反応が見たくて倒れたフリをしたら、「何が起きるのでは‥」と思ったらしく、机の下に入って自分の身を守り始めた。猫のこういう自分ファーストなとこ、好き。 pic.twitter.com/FUPjBYTDyz

— ゆあ ｜ ライター🖊 (@yunc24291) November 5, 2024

However, the bathroom is small and there's no place to hide. So, I always close the bath lid halfway and hide between the lid and the tub.

This hide-and-seek is actually quite life-threatening. It's hard to maintain a position where my face doesn't touch the water, and even though the lid is half-open, it's suffocating. But for some reason, I can't help but do it every time. I have a mysterious sense of mission.

By the way, my cats calmly accept me playing hide-and-seek for dear life.

At first, Leon would look surprised, like "Wow! You can get in there!", or show signs of looking for me if I made strange noises while hiding. But now, he's indifferent, like "Oh, she's at it again." Sometimes he even leaves the bathroom, disgusted.

My cats leave me alone as I yell "Whaaa!" or "Pooooo!" from between the bathtub and the lid (like "Between Calm and Passion"). Yeah, they're free today. And so am I.

Why do they have such a weird servant? If my cats ever think that, I want to apologize with all my heart.

Skinship ⑤ Reading novels aloud

As a child, I loved having my mother read picture books and fairy tales to me. Now I sometimes use Audible, and it's nice to enjoy stories with a human voice, with a sense of realism and warmth.

I want to do the things I enjoyed for my beloved cats. With that in mind, I started reading aloud to them.

「これがネコ…私とちょっと違う気がする…」 pic.twitter.com/aiF78xEzD7

— ゆあ ｜ ライター🖊 (@yunc24291) June 8, 2022

When I want to take a long bath, I read on my tablet or smartphone, so in the bath, I read aloud to my cat.

However, since my favorite novels are mysteries and human-scare horror, the words flying around are only dangerous ones like "incident" and "culprit." My bath time might be far from relaxing... I wonder how my cats feel listening to me read.

Hopefully, one day, my cats will learn human language from my storytelling and be able to talk. With such a dream in mind, I'm sure I'll have intense skinship today and be looked at with disapproval.