Sunday, October 19, 2014

I woke up around 1:30 A.M. and looked over next to me. There was Tommy curled up and sound asleep. Somehow she had joined me, eaten her crunchy snack and never woke me up.  I fell back asleep and woke up again about 5:30. There she was sound asleep and in the same position.

Tommy woke up around 5:45 A.M. and let me know that she was ready to start the day. We spent the time until 7:00 with her jumping on the bed, either curling up or walking all over (and I do mean all over) the bed and then jumping down and playing with her noisy foil ball and me falling into an uneven sleep.

I finally got up at 7:00 and headed to the bathroom. Tommy followed me and let me know that my needs, however great, really should take a back seat to her morning rituals.  After I finished and washed my hands, while Tommy reminded me to hurry up, I got out her grass and went to the kitchen to make coffee. While the coffee brewed, Tommy came in and let me know that it was now time for breakfast. After serving her breakfast, I went to work on transcribing Grandpa’s diaries since I didn’t have today’s month post done.

As I worked Tommy came in and first poked her head through the blinds and then somehow got her whole body through the blinds. I got up and carefully pulled up the blinds so she wouldn’t get stuck, caught, or entangled within the blinds.  Once the blinds were up, Tommy left the window area. I guess she wasn’t as intrigued once the view was open and the blinds weren’t causing a problem.

Just as I finished Tommy came back in to let me know that she needed attention. I’m always amazed that she tends to come in just as I’m doing the last entry. I wonder how she figures out when I’m nearing the end.

After posting, we played with the laser pointer. When she tired of just chasing it, I focused it on her yellow ball. She seemed to enjoy batting the ball away only to find the red light had returned and off she went to bat the ball away again with her paw. When she went and sat on her rug, I thought that pay time was over, so I went to the kitchen to put away the dishes and bad up the mini-loaves of bread.

I was wrong. Play time wasn’t over; we had just changed activities. Tommy stood and yelled to me. When I got close she darted away. It seemed that a game of Catch Me was our new activity.  Tommy would run around whenever I got close until again she sat on the rug to let me know that the game had ended.

She then moved to her bed which was now in the sun. She groomed herself and took a break while I worked on the blogs. A bit later I went up to her, sat on the ottoman next to her bed, and petted her. Suddenly she was up and on “high alert” looking out the window. It took me a while to find what was so intriguing. Two falcons were perched up on the top of the tall apartment building to the south.  She stayed focused on them until they flew away.

She moved to the floor and sprawled out. It was time for a “full body petting.” Usually I just pet her head, face, and back of her neck, but when she lays out, she wants her the front of her neck, chest and stomach petted.  This lasted until something else caught her eye. The sun was coming through my glasses and reflecting on the carpet.  Tommy loves to chase the light coming through my glasses and I do some much needed neck stretches at the same time.

While she sunned herself in her bed by the window, I tried to get ahead on the diary transcriptions.  Later I tried to empty some of the programs from the DVR. Tommy woke up and came over to get some attention. She seemed to be rubbing her teeth and jaw more against sharp edges so I wondered if she’s still having tartar issues. We’ll need to brush again today.

She also still doesn’t eat much of her dry food. We’ve been using a sample that she got from Stephanie and she really likes it. I’ll transition her to that food. I think that she thinks it’s a treat since she won’t eat much of it in any dish that I’ve put it out, but she’ll eat it when I put it directly on her rug like a treat. I’ve been putting out small amounts like a snack and she’s always eating it. She’s getting the right amount of calories now that she’s eating both types of food.

Well, it seemed that someone gulped her dry food down and didn’t chew it. Tommy just “brought it back up” and most of it was still solid pieces.  Usually she has eaten her food and chewed it. I don’t understand what happened.  I’m not sure I want to transition to this dry food if she’s going to gulp it down. It’s smaller in size than her other food. We’ll have to see how it goes.

I had an afternoon tour, so I needed to move quickly since I had spent lots of time with Tommy. She saw me getting ready and went back into the bedroom and under the bed. I put out a treat for her and left.

When I returned from the tour, Tommy was impatient to be fed. I’ll bet it had something to do with the fact that some of her dry food had been “deposited” on the carpet. I got out her dish and thought that maybe if I crushed up her dry food and mixed it with the canned food she’d get the correct caloric intake.  That was a mistake.

I gave her the bowl of food. She took one whiff of it and walked away. I left it out for a while figuring that she might get hungry enough and eat it, but after an hour she still hadn’t touched it and now was crying out for food.  I, of course, being the softie I am, relented and got her new food which she ate right away.

We spent the rest of the night just sitting around until Tommy started playing with her toy balls. She spent quite a bit of time dribbling them with her paws or whacking them away and then chasing them.  The only time she needed me was when one of the balls got stuck somewhere. She’d look at me knowing that I’d fix everything for her.

I decided to watch the evening news on the bed. Tommy came in to see what was going on and figured it was bed time, so she went to her usual spot under the bed.  I, on the other hand fell asleep during the news and didn’t wake up until hours later and that was only because Tommy jumped up on the bed looking for her snack.  I’m sure she was puzzled by the fact that I was still dressed and asleep on the bed.

Once I handled everything I sent back to bed. I wasn’t sure if Tommy would join me later or not. She had gotten her snack, so it would be interesting to see what she would do later.