One of the biggest pleasures of a day off is the freedom to wake naturally. No blaring alarm to interrupt your sleep — if you are lucky you can just sleep until you are done sleeping. It’s one of my favorite things.
This week on my day off, I got to indulge. A lot of times on my day off there is some reason or another that I find myself still setting an alarm. But this week I had nowhere to be and a full day to just do whatever I wanted. So I woke and stretched, happy to hear the rain falling outside. I had no roads to drive, no work to do outside, so I was absolutely content in the gloomy darkness.
I sat up, rubbing my eyes. The door creaked softly as Freddie pushed his way in. “Hey, little guy!” I called to him. I could see the tip of his tail as he made his way around my bed and headed to the bathroom where I keep a bowl of fresh water for him on the sink. I leaned over so I could look at him. “Hey, Freddie!” I said again.
He stopped and looked at me.
“Come on up here,” I said, patting the bed.
He stared.
“Come on! It’s warm and comfy!” I tempted.
He stared at me for a beat longer, then turned without a word and walked into the bathroom.
“Jerk,” I muttered.
You know how this works, but as always, a gentle reminder:
Pooties are cats; Woozles are dogs. Goggies are dogs, too, and moggies are cats. Birds...are birds! Peeps are people. PWB Peeps are Pooties, Woozle, Birds People. No trolling the diary.
- If you hate pootie diaries, leave now. No harm, no foul.
- Share any and all pootie/woozle photos or issues that you would like .
- If you have health/behavior issues with your pootie or woozle, feel free to bring it to the community. We just may have someone whose experience can help.
- Whatever happens in the outer blog STAYS in the outer blog. This is a place to relax and play; please treat it accordingly.
- There are some pics we never post: snakes, spiders, creepy crawlies, any and all photos that depict or encourage human cruelty toward animals. These are considered “out of bounds” and will not be tolerated.
- There is no such thing as stealing a photo around here, but if you would like a pic from the comment threads, please ask the poster. He/she may have a copyright to those pics. Many thanks!
- It should not need to be said, but ANY/ALL photos that imply or encourage human violence against an animal will be considered verboten! Whether it is “comedic” or not
I shook my head and got up, heading downstairs for coffee without bothering to get dressed. A few minutes later I sat on the couch, a steaming mug of coffee in front of me, book in my hand. I sighed happily.
A few minutes later when my coffee cup was half empty and I felt fully awake I set down my book to consider what I wanted to do that day. With the book out of my line of sight I could see Freddie, sitting on the ground on the other side of the coffee table, staring wordlessly at me. “What?” I asked.
He said nothing, just stared.
“What?” I repeated, more forcefully this time. He was starting to unnerve me.
Again, he declined to respond or blink as he stared at my face.
I returned his stare for a minute, but he always wins these contests. “Why don’t you come up here and let me pet you?” I asked when the silence started to get to me.
He turned and walked out of the room.
“Do I even have a cat anymore?!” I shouted after him.
There are some days when I’m home that I find Freddie glued to my side, constantly looking for back or belly rubs, or maybe a bite of what I’m eating. Sometimes he hangs out with me, not wanting attention, but following me from room to room.
And then there are times when he wants nothing to do with me at all.
There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. It’s like he’s occasionally possessed by a very quiet, very apathetic demon.
I finished my coffee and got up to get showered and dressed. I walked past one of the living room chairs and noticed my guy curled up in a tight ball on the seat. It was a chilly day for mid-May; very unusual for Southern California this time of year. “Poor guy,” I said. “Are you cold?” I reached out to stroke his fur.
He sat up with a jerk and stared at me again. I attempted to reach out to pet him and he shook me off, his tail thumping hard against the chair. "I just want to pet you," I said, a little stung.
"...sleepin'..." he muttered, and laid his head back down. I lingered for a moment, watching the tip of his tail beat the seat of the chair like a drum, a clear sign of his agitation.
"Fine," I said, and stomped off.
An hour later, I made my way back down the stairs now fully dressed and ready to start the day. I spotted Freddie still curled up on the chair and gave a little harrumph! sticking my chin out as I walked past. I was hungry so I headed to the kitchen.
It was lunchtime.
Don’t judge. It was my day off.
I made myself a sandwich and sat at the kitchen table to enjoy it. It wasn’t long before the seat next to me was filled by a tan, striped cat, staring longingly at my sandwich. “Oh, are we friends now?” I asked, taking an angry bite.
“I would like some of that,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” I answered around my mouth full of turkey and bread. “I don’t have a cat.”
I ate and he stared.
And then I gave him some turkey. I’m not a monster and he’s really hard to stay mad at.
He chomped it down and waited while I ate, head moving slightly with every movement of my hand. I shared a little more with him until finally the sandwich was gone and I was finishing the last of my water.
Without so much as a “thank you” Freddie jumped off the chair and walked out of the room.
“Oh, come on!” I yelled after him.
He didn’t even pause, just left the room, his tail high in the air gracefully hooked at the end.
I shook my head and turned on an audiobook, then got to work cleaning the kitchen.
Once that task was complete, I went into the family room to give the kitchen floor time to dry. Freddie was sitting on the couch and he looked up when I entered.
I started to pick-up around him. He watched me for a while, and then without a word left the room.
“Is it something I did?” I asked his retreating backside.
I continued to putter around the house for a while, picking up and cleaning. Finally, I decided I had done enough. The house wasn’t really finished, but it was my day off and I was finished. I sat down again and picked up my book.
Fully engrossed in the adventures of Ruby, Chubbs, Liam, and Zu as they ran from the authorities and tried to hide their strange abilities, I didn’t notice at first when Freddie climbed up beside me and curled up against my hip. It wasn’t until I felt him head-butt my arm that registered his presence. My had reached out automatically to rub his head and he started to purr.
“Are we friends again?” I asked.
“We were never not friends,” he replied.
“Then what was all that today? I thought I didn’t have a cat anymore.”
He frowned at me. “You don’t have a cat,” he said.
“What?!” I exclaimed.
He rolled his eyes. “I have a human,” he said, the duh unsaid but plain in his voice.
“Oh,” I said.
“Yeah, ‘oh,’” he responded. “Pet me.”
“Sure thing,” I said absently, and went back to rubbing his fur. "That’s kind of...sweet.”
He snorted and laid his head down on my thigh, closing his eyes. “That’s just the way it is,” he said.
Happy Caturday, Peeps! Whenever I come across one of these “this is not my cat/I don’t own a cat” memes they make me laugh. So I thought I’d build a post around them today. I hope you enjoyed it.