“Aren’t you going to lie down with me?” I asked my cat, who was sitting on the footrest of my seat, staring at me. Patting the couch next to me I added, “come sit with me.”
He stared, unblinking.
“You're just going to stand there and stare at me like a weirdo?”
“Yes,” he said, finally.
“Why?”
He deflated a little. “I’ve had a hard week,” he said.
A gentle reminder of how we do things: 🐱🐶🐦
- Do not troll the diary. If you hate pootie diaries, leave now. No harm, no foul.
- Please do share pics of your fur kids! If you have health/behavior issues with your pets, feel free to bring it to the community.
- Pooties are cats; Woozles are dogs. Birds... are birds! Peeps are people.
- Whatever happens in the outer blog STAYS in the outer blog. If you’re having “issues” with another Kossack, keep it “out there.” This is a place to relax and play; please treat it accordingly.
- There are some pics we never post: snakes, creepy crawlies, any and all photos that depict or encourage human cruelty toward animals. These are considered “out of bounds” and will not be tolerated. If we alert you to it, please remember that we do have phobic peeps who react strongly to them. If you keep posting banned pics...well then...the Tigress will have to take matters in hand. Or, paw.
“Come here,” I said, gently, hoping to comfort him.
He did not come closer.
I reached out to pet him and could not touch him, his body just out of reach of my fingertips. “How do you do that?” I wondered.
“Do what?”
“Sit exactly far away enough so I can’t touch you.”
“Anyway, it started off bad when everyone left me alone for days and days!” he cried, dramatically.
“It was about nine hours,” I said. “We both had to go to our offices.”
“I was lonely,” he said.
“I know you slept all day. But I’m still very sorry.”
“Good.”
Tired of not being able to touch him, I leaned forward and grabbed him, pulling him to my chest. He squawked, but didn’t fight too hard. “My poor boy,” I said, stroking his fur.
“Unhand me,” he said, wiggling.
“If I let you go, will you stay?” I asked.
“No.”
With a sigh, I let him go anyway. To my delight, he settled down on my lap. “There was an earthquake,” I prompted him.
“An earthquake!” he agreed. “The ground moved and the house moved and my paws moved!”
“It was just a small one,” I soothed, running my fingers through the fur on his back.
“Everything moved! And nothing was moving it!”
“There are these things called tectonic plates and sometimes too much pressure builds up and has to be relieved so — “
“Human, no, I don’t care.”
I laughed a little. “Did you sense it before it happened?” I wondered.
“I sensed it when I sensed it and everything moved.”
“Right.”
“It couldn’t have been much scarier than when you walk across a pile of laundry and things shift,” I pointed out. “And it was over and done with in just a few seconds.”
“I didn’t like it,” he muttered, resting his head on his crossed paws.
“I’d love to tell you it won’t happen again, but it probably will.”
He lifted his eyes to mine.
“It could happen at any time, really,” I said, frowning. “It’s random and unpredictable. Outside of a few seconds, I mean. I have an app that supposed to give you a little warning.”
“Did it warn you?” he asked.
I laughed. “The warning went off after the earthquake was over! It told me to find cover, but the ground had already stopped moving.”
“So it could happen at any time,” he summarized.
“Yes,” I answered.
“And the thing that’s supposed to predict it failed.”
I thought about it. “Not quite failed,” I mused, “just wasn't quick enough. They’re working on it, though. I logged a report to help them gather data!”
“That doesn’t help me,” he said.
“It’s fine. And it could be worse! At least you don’t live where there are tornados or hurricanes! When that happens cats and their humans have to hide in a shelter.”
He growled a little. “Speaking of which...”
"I know,” I said. “But we needed to get the window fixed.”
“Strange men! In the house!”
“They were repairmen. We needed some repairs.”
“One tried to pet me!”
“He was being nice,” I said, rubbing between his ears.
“Then I got locked away!”
“They were worried you would escape.”
“And I cried and cried and howled and was cruelly ignored!”
“You were shut in the office for a half hour, tops. And you slept most of the time,” I pointed out.
“It was a nightmare,” he said, allowing my petting him to calm him down.
“Next week will be better,” I promised him.
“How do you know?” he demanded.
“Well...we both have to go into the office again on Monday so you’ll have the house all to yourself,” I said, trying to both prepare him and put a positive spin on it.
He gasped.
“But! There probably won’t be an earthquake.”
“You said you can’t predict them!”
“And we don’t have anything else that needs to be fixed,” I told him.
He grumbled a little, but seemed to accept that. “But an earthquake could happen at any time. Even when I’m all alone!”
“We have treats!” I said, picking up the bag.
He stood, excited. “You should have given me treats already,” he said, shaking his tail. “That makes every week a good week!”
Happy Caturday, Peeps! It was a rough week to be a cat around these parts, but Freddie is a good boy who keeps his chin up.