Thursday, June 11, 2015

Catching Up

So in the past two weeks ...

Colby discovered he could leap over Apricot and not touch him doing it, while Apricot was standing. This led to Colby doing this at every opportunity until he got bored. Which took about three days, much to Apricot's relief.

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They knocked down the remote for the ceiling fan in my room, which landed on its buttons and turned the fan on full strength. I use it at night at second-to-full speed. This was apparently so utterly intriguing that the next day (today) I discovered the fan on full speed again. Only this time the remote was still in its place on the headboard. Somebody discovered how to press buttons! Which makes me giggle even as I contemplate putting the remote in the drawer during the day.

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Thimble refused to stop washing me even though he got snuttered every time he did it. So I have decided to come to a compromise and allow him to wash the tips of my fingers and thumbs. Although he still tries for my legs and arms, the times he tries are much fewer and he seems to be okay with licking my fingers. I have enough callouses on the ends of my fingers that it doesn't hurt like his sand-paper tongue hurts the skin of my forearm, for example. Now he can be happy, hopefully!

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Speaking of Thimble, he has been staying in the crate overnight for a while now, probably a month at least, and he seems to like it just fine. When I carry him to it and put him down to open the door, he simply waits and then goes in of his own accord when the door is open. He doesn't particularly want to be caught and carried there, but this seems to be more of the "little boy is tired but doesn't want to go to bed" syndrome and not a dislike of sleeping there!

And Colby has gotten quite fond of sleeping on the bed with me, to the point where all I have to do is call his name softly right before I'm going to let the curtain fall over the doorway (which signals I'm going to climb into bed next) and he comes running in and jumps onto the bed to settle in his spot. His spot, at the moment, is the bottom lefthand corner.

I still don't know where Apricot sleeps ... or even if he does sleep through the night. I suspect he doesn't. I suspect he only catnaps through the night and keeps an eye on everything to make sure we all stay safe, since we show the most un-cat-like behavior in sleeping for so long at a time. Perhaps Colby leaves the bedroom and hangs out with Apricot during the middle of the night. I only know that whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, Colby's always there. Sometimes he is against my back, asleep, and if I have to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, I have to move (and disturb) the poor cat.

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I worked a lot of overtime last week. It was perhaps not much for some people, but fifty hours is a lot for me now, especially since it included Saturday work (much to the cats' dismay). I was (and am) exhausted and had a cycling fever all day Sunday (okay, and the rest of this week to some extent).

The cats were worried. I didn't behave the way I normally did. I was even quieter than usual on Sunday except for repeatedly putting on and taking off a fuzzy jacket, plus huddling under an electric blanket. It was 76 degrees in the house; it didn't even occur to me till Monday that something had to be wrong for me to be needing a heated blanket and a fuzzy jacket!

Monday night, when I came out to the living room to give everybody goodnight kisses, I found all three cats in a circle, their heads inward to the circle, not more than six or eight inches apart each. This is highly unusual. Not only that, but when I walked in, the circle immediately disrupted itself and they just casually separated, walking off toward various areas of the living room like nothing was happening.

By all appearances, they'd been having a conference. About me. Tuesday I found out what the conclusion had been, as every one of them was exceedingly sweet and gentle and loving that morning, as if in an effort to make me stay home. It almost worked. Only the thought of my boss's response to "I can't come in today, my cats need me" kept me from doing it.

Doing Their Job

As can be inferred from my silence of the past eleven days, I've been swamped at work and exhausted at home.

Last night I almost had a meltdown. I was sitting on the floor with my back against the dishwasher, finishing off my bedtime snack. The cats like it when I'm on the floor with them and Thimble was at my side, as usual.

Apricot came in and wanted petted, so, as I was finished, I scooped him up and held him against me, nuzzling the top of his head. At this point I almost burst into tears ...

But Colby came and lay down under my knees on the floor, sticking out both sides, apparently willing to stay there as long as I was willing to sit with my knees bent. Thimble, although fascinated by something behind the trashcan, was also right next to me, his back and side pressed against me. And Apricot was purring reassuringly, rumbling against my chest.

... they make good therapy cats.