Sunday, October 19, 2014

Saturday, October 18, 2014: Many Wake Up Calls and a Mystery Solved

Tommy awakened me several times during the early morning. The first time she “announced” that she would be joining me up on the bed. As she curled up near my head, I made the mistake of petting her head thrice. She prefers to only be petted once or twice when she is settling down on the bed. She let me know of my mistake and jumped off the bed.
Once off the bed, she spent some time jumping up on one side, then crawling over me and jumping down the other side. After she grew tired of that game, she came back up and again curled up near my head. This time I was smart enough to only pet her once and she settled in for an hour long nap.
Around 6:30 A.M. Tommy could be heard chewing on her foil “ball.” I swear that she uses that toy to wake me up. When I look at her and tell her that I’m trying to sleep, she always give me that “Did I do something wrong? (Tee Hee!)” look. She continued to let me know that I needed to get out of bed until I finally gave up and got up.
I got her grass and while she ate, I prepared her breakfast.  When she heard the cat food can open, she ran out into the kitchen, to let me know that she was ready to eat. She ate about half of her food and then went back to the grass that I had failed to put away.  I decided to let her eat a little more and I’m glad that I did. 
She’s had a problem with the grass tipping over and falling out of the container. I thought it was because she was pulling on the grass as she ate and it tipped over which she has no control. I found out the real reason the contained tips over. Tommy plays with the container with her paw moving it around and grabbing the top with her paw until it tips over. Then she cries out that the grass is tipped over. Well, this time the grass was put away and I let her know that I was on to her trick.
After she finished eating, Tommy went back into the bedroom for a nap.  Here I was in the study already having had a couple cups of coffee. There was no way that I would be able to go back to sleep.  I finished up some paperwork and postings and decided that since she was sleeping this would be a good time to work on the diary transcription. When I’m dictating, she likes to come in to find out to whom I’m talking and why I’m wearing that funny head set. She always gets very verbal and wants me to stop and pay attention to her.
Just as I put on the headset, who should show up, but my little fur ball princess.  I don’t know how she does it, but she always seems to know when I need some quiet and makes sure that I stop whatever I’m doing. Once she’s “enforced” her rules, she usually tires of the game and takes a nap.  All I need to do is be patient and sooner or later I can get back to what needs to be done.
Tommy decided to take another break and as she walked into the bedroom I decided that it was a good time to run errands. I gave her a treat and left. When I returned, Tommy sauntered out to the living room to greet me. I gave her a salmon treat which she smelled and then moved away. I went into the bedroom to turn off the television, and when I returned the salmon treat was gone. Tommy was of course curious about what was in the grocery bag, but quickly discovered that there was nothing for her, so she went to her rug to take a nap.
Later when I went to the kitchen to make bread, there was tommy right behind me. She probably thought that she would be getting her canned food, but was disappointed when I got out butter, eggs, and yeast. She watched as I worked on the bread, but once I finished, so was she.
She went to explore in the study and jumped up on the desk. I stood in the hall and watched as she checked out everything. When she saw me, she started moving back toward the end of the desk, but her tail had moved the small flag stand and it was now blocking her way. She first tried gently moving it with her paw, but when it didn’t move far enough she gave up and jumped down from the desk. 
She then came out by me and hung out while I worked on the laptop.  I think that she thought that I’d cave and give her the canned food early if she just showed me some lovin’. When she realized that I wasn’t going to change and that she could eat her dry food that’s always out, she went to her bed by the windows and took a nap.
I thought that perhaps Tommy didn’t like her food in a metal dish since she didn’t like water in the metal dish, so I put her dry food in a regular dish. When she saw the dish she ran toward me. I put the dish down and she put her nose near the food. When she saw that it was dry she looked up at me. If a cat can show a look of disgust, I had just witnessed it.
I couldn’t figure out why Tommy didn’t like her dry food. She had devoured it when she was given a sample, so I thought that she liked it. I tried putting some on her rug which was where it was when she sampled it and she ate quite a bit of it. I’m going to have to figure out where/how to put it out so she will eat it. I’m not sure that I just want to put it on her rug.  When she finished her dry food snack, she went over an took a good long drink of water. I had heard that cats get their moisture from wet food and don’t drink much water. Tommy drinks water during the day. She doesn’t seem to drink an excessive amount but she does keep herself hydrated.
Tommy napped while I called my sister, continued the laundry, and finished the bread.  When she woke, her dinner was ready and when she noticed what is was, dashed across the room to the bowl.  She ate about half of it before she checked out the dry food and joined me at the table, licking her chops and checking out what I was doing (typing this blog).
With a full tummy she wandered back to her bed by the window, cleaned herself and took a post meal nap.  She had dined on turkey so I wondered if there was tryptophan in her meal. We again had a quiet night with play, petting and naps.
Tommy was losing steam and when she woke up she looked like she could go back to sleep. She looked at me, curled up, and was ready to go back to sleep. Since it was time for bed anyway, I thought I’d take advantage of the situation. I turned everything off and as I walked toward the bedroom, Tommy got up and led the way.
She watched me finish making the bed with clean sheets. When I finished and was ready for bed, Tommy crawled under the bed. I left her snack up near my head on the bed and went to sleep knowing that sooner or later she’d join me “up top.” 

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