Snippet #2

Speaking (as one does) with “my” cat Pickle. He’s wanting to jump up on the couch next to me to make biscuits. (==”knead the blanket or cushion amidst much purring and concentration”) Being a cat, that complicates things.

So he’s sitting on the ottoman looking at the empty spot on the lounge and meows at me. I give him an encouraging look and pat the cushion. A paw reaches up, tentatively, almost reflexively – then he backs up and sits again. OMFSM he seems to suddenly say, what am I doing going directly to where I’m invited? (Yeah they pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the only deity they respect other than themselves…)

He looks around to my wife’s side of the couch. Maybe he can approach from an unbidden direction, make it look like it was all his idea. (Which it actually had been, but then I ruined it by patting the cushion, thus making it look like I might have been trying to exert a smidgen of control.)

He decides it’ll be more unexpected if he steps onto the centre table that we keep the remotes and our glasses and coffee cups on but which isn’t a coffee table. (It’s some monstrosity with shelves that could have been an open display unit in its heyday.) Not watching his step because he’s discombobulated, he steps on my phone, which slips. Shit! I can almost hear him say.

He sits back on the ottoman, a look of complete yearning on his fuzzy face. I swear, I almost want to move the phone for him so he can have another go and do a Ta-daaa! Bet you never thought I’d come from this direction, did you? arrival, but I have a doctor’s appointment so I don’t have another fifteen minutes to wait for him to reset his pride, get here, and spend a bit of quality smooshing time.

“The point,” I say, “is that you want to get a cuddle and then snuggle the cat blanket. The point, in fact, is right here” as I indicate the couch cushion again. I can see it’s game over. I’ve convinced him he needs to get here right now, before I have to leave.

“Drat!” he says and steps over and starts kneading the blanket. I scritch between his ears and watch him being a cat.

I love cats, and this little guy in particular.