cat column

For over a year now, I guess, Maia and I have established a routine.

When I awake in the morning, Maia senses it and comes into the bedroom to meow for food. If I haven't given her too much on the previous day, she'll eat some of it (she meows even if she's not hungry), and then come downstairs where I've fed Pippin and poke her nose into his food if I don't glare at her about it.

Later in the morning, while I'm working back upstairs at the computer, Maia will come in, try to rub against me and meow again. This means that I am to follow her back over to the bedroom, where she will jump up on the bed for a petting session. These consist of alternating bits of 1) Maia lies on her side (always the same side, though she often lies on her other side when she's resting) for a combination of stroking of her side and having various parts of her head skritched; 2) Maia gets up and walks back and forth rubbing against my head (I'm lying on the bed, propped up on my elbows) and sometimes even giving me head-butts on my nose.

After 5-15 minutes of going back and forth between these two modes, she'll have had enough and jump down from the bed. This does not mean that she won't come back half an hour later and want it again. Sometimes later in the day, also; there have been days we've done this as many as 6 times, though other days when I'm not at the computer when we don't do it at all.

And this is the cat who, when she was a kitten, wasn't quite sure whether she liked to be petted at all.

For my part, I can use the cat-enforced stretch breaks. Besides, it's flattering to have your nose head-butted by a cat.