Micia

A few years back my elder son arrived home for the holidays (he was at university in Ballarat). It was wonderful to have him home again and the three of us (him, Puss and myself) had sat up into the wee hours of the morning chatting. It was early (about 6:30) and I was awakened by a frantic "miaow" and there was Micia (pronounced mecheea) scrabbling at the wardrobe door (she does this when she feels I need an extra wake-up call) and generally making a fuss. Assuming she was in "I want breakfast NOW" mode, but an hour early I told her it was too early for food and rolled over to have an extra few minutes repose. Micia, who is an elegantly beautiful seal-point lady Birman stalked out of the room as only an elegantly beautiful seal-point lady Birman can, to return a second or so later at a hundred miles an hour, coming to a screeching halt beside the bed. In cartoons when animals come to a sudden halt, dust etc, flies up from their paws. Well, this really happens so obviously at some stage a cartoonist has been confronted by an animal with an urgent message but back to the story. Micia came to a sudden halt, looks up at me, and miaows short deafening cries of urgency which mean "get your lazy butt out of that bed and come with me NOW!"

Being a well trained human I did as I was told and pulling on my robe I follow Micia out of my room and into the living area and there was Chris. The TV was on, he was sitting on a chair sideways with his legs dangling over the arm of it, puffing away on a cigarette. I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing and told him he'd been dobbed on. I picked up a now slightly indignant Micia and told her not to worry, he was ok. She adores Chris and had smelled the smoke and thought he was on fire and had gotten me out of bed to rescue him and from then on, he now goes outside the house and sits in the back garden whenever he feels the need to have a cigarette. Personally I don't smoke, but both my sons do and so too a couple of my friends and she never makes a fuss when anyone else lights up. But Chris gets special attention and to this day, (he's married now) she always comes to greet him whereas most other people she ignores, and he still goes out into the garden to have a cigarette!

Copyright © Heather Bridge
February 2, 2002

Read about Micia's New Year Resolutions