He came to me in the morning like nothing was different, showing up before the alarm went off and sniffing at me in an attempt to persuade me to get up slightly earlier to feed him. He does this a fair amount, although not every morning, and I don't know why. It's never worked, so he doesn't have that cat logic of "it worked once, maybe I can get it to work again." I have never gotten up until after the alarm has gone off (twice at least) and he's never been still in the room when this happens. (He gets bored and leaves.)
But when I came back from my walk to get ready to go to work, even though Sophia was sleeping in and showed no signs of having emerged (door almost shut, no noises from the guest bedroom), Apricot had put himself away in his observation deck (the cubbyhole in the living room cat tree) again.
I came home early but didn't go inside and we (humans) all went out to lunch together. (All my siblings and my brother's wife). After we came home then Sophia and I went in the house together. I changed my normal "Apricot I'm home" call to alert him to the fact we were both there and it worked; he didn't come running into the kitchen like he normally does.
Sophia went to take a nap and I sat down opposite from the observation deck on the floor and informed Apricot that she was in the pink bedroom and wasn't coming out for a while, and would he care for a cuddle? He stretched and made his way down from the observation deck, in no hurry it would seem. Except I know him better now. This was almost equivalent to running up to me. He just likes to pretend he's not eager.
So I petted him and cuddled him and he was most appreciative. Depending on how bad his day has been depends on how close to me he cuddles. He wedged his full body up against me, as close as he could get with every inch of fur he could. Poor guy. So I hugged and petted and scratched all his favorite areas for those things.
That night we had the big family dinner at my parents' house, and I didn't get home till after my bedtime, which you all should know by now is 8 pm like a little kid's bedtime. Apricot did not approve and would have preferred to have me home earlier, but he still "helped" me to go to bed. This help consists of walked with me to the bedroom and then staying long enough to observe that I'm starting bedtime things (changing clothes, etc), whereupon he leaves for the living room. Right before I am ready to climb into bed I go into the living room and ask if he wants his goodnight kiss, and then when he settles on a spot to have his kiss, I pet him and kiss the top of his head and then go to bed. And he did all this routine just like Sophia wasn't in the house.
In the morning, Saturday morning, Sophia went for a walk with me and then very graciously allowed me to continue with my normal routine of vacuuming the house after the Saturday morning walk. (I mean, not every guest would agree to let you vacuum while they are there, especially since she was leaving right after breakfast and a normal person would have been perfectly fine with moving the vacuuming a few hours out.)
Apricot behaved as normal during the vacuuming. He put himself in the Observation Deck during the first part and then moved himself to the headboard hideaway for the second part. He even came out from under and into the living room when coaxed once the cleaning was done, even though Sophia was in the pink room and my bedroom door is at right angles to that door (which was open). He gave her very skeptical looks as he sidled out of the bedroom door and then hastily departed down the hall. She was doing stretches on the nice clean floor and probably looked very odd to a cat who isn't used to a lot of human behavior.
Sophia's the one that coined the term Observation Deck for the cubbyhole in the living room cat tree and I like it so much I shall be using it a lot.
After all the normal Saturday routine Sophia and I went to my parents' house for family breakfast (also a normal thing, although usually it's just me going there). The whole group gathered and we had a lovely breakfast with scrambled eggs (by my father) and bacon and pancakes (by my mother) and Belgian waffles (by my sister-in-law) and cameras (by my mother and sisters). We didn't eat the cameras.
The night before, while Sophia and I had driven over in separate cars, we'd driven back in mine and left hers there. So this morning she'd packed my car, and then we transferred her luggage to her car when we got there, and she left from my parents' house for her home after breakfast was finished.
This meant that I went home alone, like a normal Saturday, and was able to tell Apricot when I got in the door that "I'm home, it's just me!" He'd already figured out something was up because all her stuff was gone from the pink room, and he met me in the kitchen with great glee.
Well, I miss having Sophia around, even if Apricot really really doesn't. He made quite a big deal out of not-missing her. He was thrilled to have me to himself, and made a point of following me around and wanting petted frequently. On my part, I was so happy this visit hadn't made him regress to the traumatized anxious shelter kitty that I was perfectly willing to pet him. Frequently.
When I left for my normal Saturday night friends gathering, Apricot actually tried to physically block me from going into the kitchen to put my shoes on when I told him I had to leave again. Since he's only eleven pounds, he's not very effective at blocking me. Not physically anyway, but I sure hated to leave him!
Today he has been very clingy still, but he's getting back to normal. He is taking his early afternoon nap in his typical spot (the green stair cat tree) while I mess with computers and laundry and stuff in the living room (and back and forth for the laundry between the kitchen where the laundry closet is to the bedroom where the clothes live).
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| Saturday he even tried out his new kitchen outpost while I folded laundry. The green poofy thing next to him is an identical barstool for him (or another cat) to sit on. |
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