Last night after a hard day at work I had decided to relax awhile and read in bed after dinner. Three years ago, when Hobbes was a kitten I took some advice from some of you and started feeding Hobbes 3 oz of canned cat food at night to try to get him to sleep at night instead of trying to get us to play. Every night at 10 PM he and Selena get 3 oz of canned cat food. But Hobbes tries to get me to feed him earlier every night. Last night it started about 8:30. He jumped up onto the bed and said, "Meow". I smiled and said, "Hello Hobbes". He headbutted my nose and laid down on my book. I scritched his ears and rubbed his belly and he moved away. About 10 minutes later he was back, "Meow?" and this time he decided to investigate my beside table. He kept this up for 30 minutes before he decided I wasn't responding to his satisfaction so he took up a different tact.

My DH has a little tabletop fountain on his bedside table. The water trickles over a flat slate down into a well that also contains small, smooth river stones. Hobbes went over to the bedside table and said, "Meow!". I smiled and said, "Not yet Hobbes, lets give it another 30 minutes." I watched as he looked into the fountain and carefully selected a stone and flipped it out of the fountain and onto the table then down to the floor. He looked back and me and said, "Meow!" I laughed merrily and said, "Hobbes! Don't do that." He responded with another "MEOW!" and flipped another stone onto the table. I fussed and he came over to headbutt me again and sit down in front of my face, on my book of course, and gave me the most starved, deprived look a 20 lb kitty cat can possibly give his slave and said, "meoooow?" Of course I gave in. I'd bought a little bit of time, they didn't get fed until 9:30. Selena's the smart one, she sat at the end of the bed and watched all of this happening until Hobbes talked me into getting up and going into the kitchen and she happily trotted after us for her portion.

Silly cats!

Copyright © Julie Cook
September 7, 2000