Visitor!

I meant to post this yesterday, but forgot. The other night around
midnight, I was just settling down to watch a little TV before going
to bed, when I heard a very familiar *bap* on the bottom of my screen
door. I ran to the door, opened it, and there stood Smudge, as though
it hadn't been months since she last did this. So I opened the door,
and she strode in as though she did this every night. I went back to
the couch and sat down, she came over to the nearest scratching post
and had herself a scratch, and then she jumped up and made herself
comfortable on my side. Just as though it hadn't been months...

She stayed there for at least 30 minutes, purring softly. Occasionally
she stood up to turn around and knead for a minute before settling back
down. Nobody else, by which I mean mostly Licky, bothered her. Roxy
looked like she really wanted Smudge's spot on my side (it's a little
chilly in the apartment, but not enough to turn on the heat, so I'm the
warmest thing in the house as far as she's concerned). She started to
walk over to us, and I knew what she was up to. When Roxy wants a spot
that someone else is curled up in, she'll just go right up to them and
bap them on the head. They hiss or growl, and then leave, so she gets her
spot. But I didn't want her knocking Smudge off, so I repeated several
times, in a sing-songy voice, "Noooo, Roxy, no! Uh-uh-uh-uh, Roooooxy,
no!" etc. Smudge knew I wasn't talking to her. Roxy got the message, lay
down where she was, and glowered at us.

Eventually, though, I was bothered by the many deep mats in Smudge's
fur. I've already been working on some of them - I bring a pair of
scissors outside with me when I feed her, so I can try to clip one or
two off while she's eating. But here she was, dozing on my side. So I
got out the scissors (which were within reach) and started clipping.
She let me get away with this for a while, but then started getting
annoyed. I did manage to remove 2 or 3 bad ones, but there are still
several more embedded in her flanks and rear end. It's going to take
a while.

Once she got annoyed, she jumped down - and then all of a sudden, it
was like she was noticing for the first time that I have two other
cats, and she started growling and hissing at them. She ran to the
door, growling the whole way, so I got up and let her back out.

Joyce

--
audiophile, n:
Someone who listens to the equipment instead of the music.