It's 3:00 AM ...

Many professional cat people claim that cats are nocturnal. For a critter that is rumored to sleep 18-20 hours a day as The Cat does, sometimes I wonder what 'nocturnal' really means.

So, I'm just drifting off to sleep and I feel this -pflonk- on the arm of the recliner, then nothing. I keep drifting. A few minutes later, I sense a pressure on my chest, then a paw smacks me on the face.. not hard, just enough to get my attention. I open my eyes, and The Cat's face is about two inches from mine, dead serious expression. How Dare You Sleep, opener of cans, possessor of the opposable thumbs, slave to my every whim? I mmpfh and try to brush the whiskers off my nose. I drift back off to sleep. About ten minutes go by, then the paw smacks my face again.. I open my eyes and am greeted with that laconic 'well..?' look.

Reluctantly I lever the chair back to vertical, catching The Cat carefully on my lap and waiting for my orders. She shrugs, lazily spins around like a dog, and curls up, content in the knowledge that she now has my full attention. I cannot put the chair back into reclining position without disturbing The Cat, so there we sit.

My eyes close and I drift back off to sleep, now sitting upright. A few minutes go by and The Cat stands, stretches, and whomps me on the face with her tail, just for good measure. With a shrug, she steps daintily off my lap and into the surrounding darkness, point made.

Now, this is a cat who is quite content to nap all day long in an open box of 2002 business receipts in 'her' room. She has commandeered that spot as her own and no attempts to dissuade her of it have succeeded. She does not like the 2001 box nor the 2003 box, both of which we have opened for her napping pleasure. Beats me...

The Cat does not enjoy her $180 cat perch with its berber scratching pillars and specially lined fluffy bed section. The Cat does not appreciate this sort of thing for more than the few minutes it takes to unpack and assemble. After trying it once, The Cat nods imperiously and heads straight for the box it was shipped in.

I've gotten the recliner to recline again, and am almost back asleep. -Pflonk-. We repeat the face-patting tail-swishing re-verticalizing drill. Once more, a few minutes in the lap are all she wants, and off she goes into the dark.

I can only ascertain that, as we human pets may enjoy summer homes and winter homes, The Cat enjoys a daytime snooze place and a nighttime snooze place of her choosing. Due to the nature of the planetary alignment, the exact temperature and humidity of the swamp cooler output, and perhaps a dozen other elemental influences I shall never begin to comprehend, the nighttime snooze place of her choosing just happens to have been my lap tonight.

I am blessed.