We have a cat for M. C. Escher, so why not one for Salvador Dali too? Taken one day shy of his one month anniversary with us, still skinny enough that he could pull off poses like this when he slept.
Tag: sleeping
Drifting Off
I spent the day at home, partly because I wasn’t feeling well and partly to ease Boo’s transition to my wife and I both being gone during the day. I’ve been spending a lot of the past few days with the other pets (who are sleeping around me in a circle now) while my wife stays with Boo, so it was a good chance for some one-on-one time.
Boo curled up on my chest as we slept through the morning, then in the afternoon as I set him on the couch to take a picture, he instead curled up beside me with his head against mine, purring loudly. The purring suddenly stopped and I surmised he had fallen asleep, so I eased back to take his picture. He flopped halfway over the edge, opened his eyes for a moment, and promptly fell back asleep.
We had a nice day, Boo and I, even if we slept through much of it.
Don’t Mind if I Do
I was sitting on the floor this afternoon when Boo came over unprompted and crawled into my lap and fell asleep. I wasn’t prepared for it and not sitting in a comfortable place, but I let him stay as long as he wanted. He’s still pretty skittish but the transformation he’s undergone in a few days is incredible. There’s a downside to this. I’ve been sleeping in the bedroom so Sam can keep his routine of sleeping on me, while my wife is sleeping in the basement with Boo, who kept her up most of the night showering her with affection.
Two Days Today
Two days ago Boo trembled in fear at our introduction. Today he curled up beside me and slept with his head on my chest.
Remarkable.
Psst! Hey Em! Do You Want to Know a Secret?
I think she just wants to sleep, Samwise.
Sam & Emma
A shot from last fall of Sam and Emma.
The two are friendly but don’t often cuddle up like this, which is unfortunate since in the six weeks since Scout passed away, the ever-snuggly Sam has been on constant lookout to replace her affections. A lot of the time the two spent together they spent with me, so it’s not so much that he’s spending more time with me but rather that he wants to be up close rather than out on my legs, a favorite Sam spot since he was a wee kitten.
I don’t know if we’ll ever adopt another kitten in the hopes that the two will become close friends, just as he and Scout did five years ago, but in the meantime we’ve tried some commercially available Scout substitutes, such as
- I Can’t Believe It’s Not Scout
- Skout
- Kiss Me I’m Scouttish
but so far none have worked.
For such a tiny little cat, she left a big hole to fill.
A Slow Recovery
Hard as it is for me to believe, it’s been almost five weeks since Scout passed away. Her loss has been particularly hard on little Sam but he’s been making a slow recovery and is now nearly back to normal, or perhaps has reached the new normal. Sam loves snuggling on my legs (shown here a few years ago), to the point that if life were a cartoon I’d have permanent Sam-shaped divots on my legs. But after Scout died he’d only sit in my lap tucked up tight against my chest, as though he was huddling against the cold. After a couple of weeks he relaxed a bit and while still in my lap moved a few inches away, and then a few inches more, but he still stays so close that I can’t really work on my laptop.
I don’t know if he’ll return to sleeping on my legs or if I’ll have to adapt to his new position on my lap. Sometimes he’ll walk down to where he used to sleep but he’ll turn around and come back, so perhaps it’s just going to take a bit more time. He did go all the way down to my feet the other day, but not unaided. Our dog Ellie was snuggling up next to me as well and suddenly sat up and began licking him in the face. He put up with the indignity for a little while but when it was clear she wasn’t going to stop, he moved down to my feet until the coast was clear when she fell back asleep, and then he came back.
His purr has finally returned. It didn’t completely disappear after Scout died, but it got very quiet and hard to come by and didn’t last long. Just in the past few days he’s purred loud and long when we climb into bed at night, so he is definitely recovering.
So too am I.
Scout was my near and constant companion so when I’m at home even now her absence is clearly felt. After getting past that initial wall of grief in the days after she died, a shadow of sadness lurks and at unpredictable times I feel her loss most acutely. But that is at it should be, she was one of the best parts of my life.
With Sam snuggling too close for me to do much typing on my laptop, I’ve been catching up on a lot of old classic movies and British mysteries, usually with Sam on my lap, Ellie tucked up beside me on my right, with our other cat Emma a few feet to my left in her heated bed. Scout’s heated bed lies empty, and that in and of itself is surprising. Sam loved sleeping in her bed and I assumed after she died he’d take it over as his. But right after she died he’d only occasionally get in, then for a few weeks actively avoided it. Now he’s back to occasionally sleeping in it, but mostly it lies empty.
He has been sleeping in Ellie’s beds quite a bit, but that’s not unusual, he’s always done that. Emma has started doing it too, and I had to laugh the other day when both of Ellie’s beds near my office were full of cats and Ellie was scrunched up over on the floor beside them.
What a blessing they are, these little ones.
Before the Warm Beds, There Was a Pillow
Another picture of Scout at five months old in 2001. Even as a kitten Scout often wanted to nap near me, which in general I found adorable, but when I was working at the computer she would sit directly on my right hand and try to sleep, meaning I couldn’t so much as move my hand without waking her. We hadn’t yet discovered the wonder of heated cat beds, but I came up with a compromise that she accepted: I kept a pillow beside my keyboard that she could sleep on.
Templeton started using it as well, but once the cats got hooked on the heated beds, there was no more need for the pillow. I did keep the beds right beside me though, right up through today, and part of remodeling my office meant making sure there was space for three heated beds near my desk and couch.
Cat Signal
Like Batman, I can be summoned with a signal cast upon the heavens. He with a silhouette of a bat, I with cat ears. He to fight criminal masterminds, I to evict trespassers in Scout’s bed.
We all have our roles to play.
Comfort
We bought this Kivik loveseat from Ikea for one sole purpose: to give our sixty-five pound lapdog a place in my office to snuggle. We weren’t exactly looking for heirloom furniture given the abuse of paw and claw it will endure, and also went for comfort over style.
I’d say we chose wisely, wouldn’t you, Ellie? Ellie? Ellie?
I’m sure she’ll get back to us.
Boolie 