Girlfriend waits for a lap.
Those of you who read this blog regularly may remember that I lost my cat, Miss Thing, in September. At this time of year I miss her every day. She loved Christmas, with all its opportunities for climbing inside boxes and packages (empty or not) and playing with ribbons or low-hanging tree ornaments.
But Girlfriend, her litter-mate, has blossomed during the past few months. I never realized how much Miss Thing dominated Girlfriend. Girlfriend outweighed Miss Thing by at least three pounds, but was cowed by the force of Miss Thing’s personality. The past three months have been Girlfriend’s chance to gradually reclaim large sections of the house that Miss Thing had reserved as her own private territory. It took a month before Girlfriend would hang out in the kitchen with my husband and me. Now she regularly sits on the chairs under the table as we eat our breakfast, or takes a watching position by the sliding glass door that looks out to our birdfeeders.
And she’s become my little office companion for the first time in her life. The photo above shows her in what’s become her usual afternoon spot, on a pillow under my desk. The pillow is a concession. Before I put it down she spent a lot of her time sitting in the hallway outside my office, whining for me to come join her in the living room. That was driving us both crazy. Now she has a spot she thinks of as hers, and she patiently waits for me to have tea in the afternoon, when I can sit in an armchair and give her a lap. The only thing she likes better is when she can convince someone (me) to take an afternoon cat-nap with her. She considers naps to be eminently sensible, and can’t understand why I don’t nap with her every single afternoon.
I still grieve for my charming, devil-may-care Miss Thing, but I’m glad that Girlfriend has this chance to shine. Friends have asked me if we plan to get a new kitten for our household, but I couldn’t do that to Girlfriend. This is the first chance she’s had in her life to enjoy the best seats in the house. And it’s good for both of us when that favored seat happens to be my lap.
