Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Tuesday, September 9, 2014: Reading Signals

When I got up during the night there was Tommy laying at me feet. This has become her usual night sleeping spot. She woke up around 6:00 and wanted to play, but since I wasn’t moving, she amused herself.  I fell back to sleep and woke up at 7:00. Tommy was hiding under the bed, but came darting out when I neared the door. I gave her the morning petting/rub down, and then opened the door so she could quickly “escape.”
She went out and headed to her water dish which I filled with fresh water, but once it was filled, she showed me that my first attempt at the morning petting hadn’t been sufficient and I needed to try again.  Once that was accomplished, I opened the balcony door so Tommy could enjoy some fresh air. I realized that I hadn’t put on my glasses, so I left to get them.  By the time I returned, Tommy was already finished at the screen door and was enjoying a morning grass snack.  I figured that this was a good time to do the quick printing on the computer.
When I returned Tommy was sitting among her toys which told me that since I had missed the early morning play session, I had better attend the regular morning session. I thought that I could quickly put on the coffee, but right before I finished, Tommy came and pulled on the carpeting, telling me that I’d better hurry up as her patience was waning.
I quickly finished and brought out the fleece teaser. We played for a while and I thought that I could move her toward the blinds so I could open them. She followed, but then pulled the fleece back to her preferred spot by the toys. It took a couple attempts, but I was able to open the blinds. Each time I tried Tommy would grab the fleece and pull it back to her desired spot. I tried moving to various chairs, but each time Tommy would grab it and return to her spot.
I knew that this segment of play time was over when Tommy headed for the screen door. I thought maybe I could grab coffee, but as I headed toward the kitchen, I was summoned to follow her into the study. I grabbed my coffee and went to the study.
When I arrived, there she sat on the Cat’s Meow. It was time to turn it on. As she played, I moved around some books. I had noticed that the Harry Potter books were on her favorite shelf and since she enjoyed chewing on book covers, I decided that I’d rather put the expendable a.k.a. sacrificial books there. As I moved them around Tommy stopped and watched. She probably was trying to figure out her human’s weird actions.
As I worked on the computer, Tommy amused herself with the Cat’s Meow, jumping on and off her chair and running around the condo. We stopped and ate breakfast and when we returned and turned on Cat’s Meow again, it needed the batteries replaced. Once that was done, it worked much faster and Tommy spent more time playing with it. Of course, throughout the day there were the usual, “play with me; the Cat’s Meow stopped because I’m sitting on it; I want to play with the Cat’s Meow, but only if you’re watching me, etc.” times.
Around 4:00 Tommy stood by the teasers and let me know that she wanted a little play time. We got out the fish teaser and we played for about 15 minutes. I always enjoy it when I know that she wants to play and doesn’t make me go through the entire inventory before choosing a toy.
I had a ticket for the Brewers game, so Tommy was going to spend the night with the Games Network. She readily came in to the bedroom knowing that if Daddy was leaving there would be treats, and of course she was right.
When I returned we played for a while, but knowing that I had class in the morning I had to finish much quicker than I wanted. Tommy was catching on to the fact that the laser pointer heads into the bedroom and that’s been how I’ve lured her in for the night, but somehow it still worked.
I knew that Tommy would be up sometime during the night, but at least she began the night up on the bed, and she would probably be there when I woke up in the morning.

No comments: