The Weather Cat

Tuesday, Sept 16, 2014 (written on the 18th)

Another summer thunderstorm late in the day sent Apricot under the bed. I'd gotten home with groceries just half an hour before he dived for cover, and the sky was a hot blue with bright yellow sunshine and only a few puffy white clouds. I'll grant you that I heard what might have been very faint thunder right before Apricot came into the bedroom and scuttled under the bed with undue hurry, but I mean, it could have been anything.

I looked at the weather report but it said it wasn't supposed to rain until 6 pm and it wasn't but a little after 5. I was rather skeptical to Apricot about the wisdom of going and hiding. It wasn't even a little bit like raining outside. No dark clouds covering the sun or anything.

Ten minutes later, when the thunder was all around and the rain pouring down like buckets, I had to apologize for my skepticism. Apparently, Apricot is a better weather forecaster than the weather people, at least when it comes to close forecasts! Next time he dives for cover I'll take him seriously and go take down the wreath from the outside door so it doesn't get beaten by the rain.

Well, anyway, I now had lack of cat to keep me company, so I went and watched R.E.D, a movie I've seen before and quite enjoyed. I wanted to watch it so I could watch the sequel and know the characters and stuff.

Halfway through the movie, around 7 or so, Apricot strolls into the room. The tv is wild with action; there is gunfire all around the room thanks to the surround sound, and my brave cat is completely unaffected. He jumped up beside me, accepted some petting as per usual, and then curled up next to me. He deliberately coiled into a ball and dropped into place so close to me that his shoulders were up against my hip and leg.

I left my hand rest against his body, loving the feel of warm, breathing fur, and he stayed with me for about twenty minutes, a very long time for him. It was quite lovely.

Today, Thursday, I came home early from work and watched the sequel, R.E.D. 2, and was graced with a furry kitty presence several times. He even got in the hammock by the couch and curled up there for a while, and I only knew about it because he made squeaky snore noises once or twice. I don't know if he was actually asleep because by the time I peered over the edge of the sofa arm, he was awake.

I'm very glad I can watch tv without having Apricot being too scared to be with. I mean, I want to be with my kitty, but I also like to watch my movies and tv shows. I love to read, but there are times when reading is just too much concentration to muster when I'm tired from the stress of work, or just general emotions. So it's nice that he's no longer afraid of the tv.

Really, I wonder how much showing him the smart phone screen with things on it helped. It seems an awfully big intellectual jump to generalize from that small screen to the large screen tv ... but it was a very definite break in the pattern. Before I showed him the phone screen, he was terrified of the tv; afterwards, he was completely at home with it. The evidence suggests that it did have something to do with his change of heart, as strange as it may seem.