Last night as I went off to bed, Marble went through his usual routine of running upstairs after me, meowing all the way and purring at the same time. Very unusual ability as he seems to be able to meow and purr simultaneously. Every night Marble graciously allows me to occupy a small section of my bed whilst he takes up the vast majority of the space. It doesn't occur to him that as I am considerable larger than he is, I may just need more of the bed. Marble assures me that quality is more important than quantity...

I got into bed and Marble leaped on to the duvet after me. Normally he snuggles down on the duvet at the foot of the bed, but last night, for reasons known only to him he decided to stretch out along side me. You know cats - they don't think they have to give a reason to vary their hangouts.

I was sat upright in bed with my legs stretched out in front of me under the duvet and Marble was stretched out full length, all four legs extended. He was lying on his side, eyes closed, purring loudly.

I gently got a hold of him by all four paws and picked him up and laid him, stretched out, belly up, on my lap on top of the duvet. Marble decided to get comfortable as I had obviously disturbed him and decided to do this by practising his Cat Zen meditation. Have you ever seen the position cats use to Zen meditate??? Let me explain.

Marble lay on his back, belly up to the ceiling. He lay his head back over my knees so his throat was exposed, mouth half open, eyes rolling up and said throat purrs so loud it vibrates. Front legs are stretched out over the head to expose the feline "armpits" to the world - at least his "pits" smell better than his other end usually does Back legs are then spread wide apart, stretched out as long as they can be and then hooked up and over so his back paws touch his ears... This allows the belly to be in the most comfortable position for any nearby human to give it a good rubbing which leads to even louder purrs.

Marble stayed in that position for a good half hour, whilst "Muggins" here did what any human is supposed to do, refrain from lying down and going to sleep after a long hard day at work suffering from yet another off the scale migraine attack until said feline has had his fill of belly rubs to reach Nirvana during meditation

That cat has me metaphorically dangling off the end of his little claw!

Copyright © Helen Simmons
October 9, 1999