The Cats of August

The summer is winding to a close, my furry brothers and sisters. It has been an exiting few months of staring out the window, sleeping, eating, staring out the window, using the litter pan, hanging from the screens, and staring out the window. I can tell you right now that I'm not looking forward to the seasons where the windows will be closed.

Winter up here in the cold, frozen northern wastes of Minnesota do have some benefits, though. My humans, Evan and Sudha will soon be graced by my presence at the foot of their bed, and more frequently on their laps!

My humans were out of the house for a week celebrating Rachel and Fernando's wedding in the middle of August. Everyone please give them your best wishes. The best part of that week for me is that the kindly neighbor man comes over to scoop my kibble for me. He is a very nice and cat-loving old man, and he feeds me a lot more than my regular humans do. I deigned to allow him to pet me after a few days of feeding me. It really does take me a long time to learn to tolerate any other humans other than my own. That's usually why I hiss at them when they try to pet me too forcefully.

I've slowly started to rethink the hissing philosophy, however. I recently discovered that less hissing usually ends up with more scratching behind the ears, and less water being shot at me from the big spray bottle. I haven't hissed at guests for the last 3-4 visits. Evan and Sudha seem to be pleased, not that that matters a whole lot.

Instead, I've started to focus my energy on finding newer more creative ways to wake my humans up in the morning when I feel it's breakfast time. First, I tried the brute-force approach: I went up to Evan's pillow, rubbed my paw against it repeatedly and then meowed directly in his ear. That seemed to be very effective. Unfortunately I've had to tone it down a bit, because it seems they have now learned to throw me out of the room when I do things like that.

Sudha's little sister, Suma, was in town a couple weekends ago. I remember when she used to live in my house. She really likes me and thinks I'm adorable (naturally) but sometimes pretends not to. So this time, just to re-enforce my cuteness, I decided to take a nice nap in her lap! Now, if I do say so myself, there isn't much better than a cute, purring cat sitting on your lap and keeping it warm for you on a cold day.

Until next time, my furry brothers and sisters!