As I've mentioned before, my Amelia baby (all 14 pounds of her) loves to perch on my shoulders and groom my hair while I shave in the morning. In the last couple of weeks Amelia's tiny Tabitha sisfur has been wanting to join her. A couple of times I've ended up with Amelia draped across my shoulders and Tabitha sprawling parallel to Amelia. This gets a little difficult to manage, as my shoulders aren't quite big enough to support two cats. In the last week, though, Amelia has been quite insistent that she doesn't *want* to share her shoulder space - she has growled and snapped at Tabitha Fluffybutt if she's tried to climb upon the shouldering towel.

This morning, though, it just got to be too much to bear. Poor little Fluffybutt wanted SO badly to be a shoulder kitten - she climbed Nancy's towels up to the top of the towel rack, so she could try to leap over to the towel on my shoulders. I saw this coming and realized it would NOT be a good idea. Since I had just finished shaving, I took a towel off the rack, draped it over my arms and chest, and allowed Tabitha to be an almost-shoulder kitten. This seemed to satisfy Tabitha, as she was riding on her person and was sharing space with her big sisfur Amelia. It also satisfied Amelia, as Fluffitha wasn't trespassing upon Amelia's shoulder territory.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I suspect that Tabitha is going to want to be a co-shoulder kitten again, but might not want to wait until I've finished shaving. I've got to figure out how to shave with one hand, with the other hand supporting a chest-climbing kitten. Hmmm...

Copyright © Dan Mahoney
August 8, 2003