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I work from home using the back bedroom as an office until my daughter recently moved back. It's a very small room at the best of times, but now with a single bed in it, I wasn't too sure how I was going to manage. It meant a complete upheaval of the entire room, particularly as I already have bookshelves, a desk, computer, an ENTIRE drum kit (yes, hubby's a drummer) and, believe it or not, a freezer!We also have three delightful cats who spend much of their time with me, while I work. There is Ming, a chocolate tabby point Tonkinese, Lilah, a lilac point Siamese and a beautiful, useless Birman who rejoices in the pet name of Fatty! They are all mad and keep us laughing all the time.
Anyway, this particular night, I changed my very cramped office around to accommodate a single bed, much to the delight of my cats. (Can I help, mum? Can I? Huh?) They drove my hubby and I crazy, getting into bookcases, office drawers ... one nearly got his throat cut when I caught him gnawing on the power lead to my computer! YIKES! Fried cat! But all is better now! Everyone is much happier and they all have a spot where they can watch mum work without having to fight for position! Originally, I would have to sit with cats perched all over the place, but now with the bed in the room, I only have TWO to deal with.
Lilah, the Siamese and matriarch of the three curls up on the bed and looks smug from there, Fatty, the Birman, gets the top of the monitor, except when Ming, the Tonkinese shoves him off because it's HER turn!! Usually peace reigns because Ming is much happier looking out the window. (The dimwit. It's dark. She just hasn't figured that out, yet)!
After all the moving about, I sat down at my computer to catch up on some long overdue work. Fatty was on top of the monitor as usual, (it's his SPECIAL spot), but Ming insisted it was HER turn! I explained, quite reasonably, that there were other places she could sit and even went to the trouble of showing her a couple, but, oh no! She wanted HIS spot! During all this ruckus, Lilah was curled up on the bed, smirking and saying, "I'm a good girl, aren't I, Mum?"
Normally, all three would fight for position on the desktop, but now there were other places to sit, I figured I was pretty safe! How stupid of me to try to out - think my cats. At 12:30AM they ALL converged on me, just as my husband was bringing me a VERY hot cup of coffee. I had Fatty on the monitor, trying to attract my attention, Lilah was on the mousepad purring away busily in case I looked up and caught her eye. (She likes to look her best at all times). And, of course, I had the thug, Ming, trying to attract my attention anyway she knew how!
Needless to say, at that hour of the morning, I was dressed for bed and totally unprepared for what happened next. Fatty was busily chatting to me and I was typing away, when Ming decided that she was making one last stand for the top of the monitor and shoved Fatty right off the top and straight into my boiling hot coffee! Coffee, cats and curses filled the room! I took off to shower and apply burn cream to a very tender part of my anatomy while my hubby cleaned my desktop and keyboard.
By the time I came back, all three were heaped on top of each other looking like butter wouldn't melt in their mouths! My husband glanced in and said they looked like a cuddle of cats. They're the best of friends and in this cold weather they tend to use each other as portable Doonas.
We get so much pleasure out of them and they keep us laughing all day long. My hubby, who didn't like cats much, loves them as much as I do. We wouldn't be without them for the world.
Copyright © Jo Gray
July 16, 2001AUTHOR'S NOTE: We live in central Victoria, Australia in an old gold mining town, which still produces gold to this day. Our other "inmates" are a kangaroo, who hasn't learnt to stay out of my vegetable patch, and a magpie and his mate.
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