Andy waited for me to finish cleaning up to go to dialysis. There he was, on the blue carrier.
He made the amazing seven-foot leap from the blue carrier to the cat tree by my bedroom door, then assumed the “massage me pose.”
Yes, Andy expected me to do to do that thing we usually do in the dark when I wake up and get out of bed. Andy wasn’t waiting on the cat tree when I passed it then. Now…!
I realized Andy wouldn’t handle it well if we skipped his favorite morning ritual, even if I was ready to leave for dialysis!
Aw! The head and ear rub and “skritches.”
His little butt elevated to get in better contact with my fingers. Yes, the morning ritual wouldn’t be complete without my fingers passing up and down Andy’s spine, never missing to “scritch” that spot near the tail that especially pleases him!
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Standing for any length of time is difficult for me, so I leave a walker close to the cat tree so I can massage Andy as long as he wants me to. When he’s had enough – long after I am ready to stop most mornings – he hops back over to the blue carrier!
Andy changes directions two, three, four times during our sessions and I change hands several times as well. My fingers give out well before Andy is satisfied the ritual is done!
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I know that in situations when a sentence ends with a quotation mark around a comment or word, the period goes inside the quotation marks: The dog says “Woof.”
That always looks wrong, wrong, wrong to me!
English orthography pedants frown on this: The dog says “Woof”. They aren’t just woofing, but you know what a pedant is: “…a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning.” (Notice where I put the period. Woof!)
Beautiful photographs you caught dear Doug, Lovely Andy! But you know cats don’t like to wait! By the way it is good to be in activity for all of us, Andy is great. And also I forgot to say, ah these rituals, rituals… You can’t pass or you can’t miss them… Especially the elder one in our home, İbiş, ahhh! If I miss or if I am busy he never stops to call me! He is the most talking one in the home. Thank you dear Doug, have a nice day, Love, nia
Andy has a very soft voice I barely hear, but, when we do this morning ritual, he starts purring softly, gradually purring louder and louder! His purr is gravelly, rough.
Lovely Andy! Our İbiş is very loudly sometimes he starts and doesn’t stop! But especially Cesur and Tomurcuk are like Andy, Blackie is learning everything from İbiş! Love and Hugs to you both, nia
It’s nice when kitties are at least loud enough to hear. The late Doug and the late Louie both were just right in that regard. Dougy sometimes was like Ibis, meowing for long strethes.
Andy is very pleased to keep his ritual with you going, Doug. Wishing you both many more years together.
Some are fun, others pop up when it interferes with meal preparation or other things. I still have to honor the rituals!
I feel so bad when my body gives out before kitty petting is complete!
Me, too. Andy gives me sad looks them.
Glad Andy was able to get his scritches.
It’s the least I can do! It’s fun for both of us.
You are a great cat dad, Doug! 👍🏻😊
I try, John.
I’ve always balked at that grammar rule too. And I’m a stickler for most of the other rules.
Yes, I’m notorious for breaking the grammar rules when it feels right, but, again, I tell myself the way I do it is the way ordinary people speak. I’m one of the ordinary people, so…!
Excellent point!
Great pictures of a wonderful procedure between you and Andy. It’s good that you can last through the time taken to please him.
He has to spend lots of time by himself because of my dialysis, so I try to give him a lot of attention when he wants it.
Three and four down capture “that look” of Andy’s. Great!
Yes, thy aree really good shots of how sweet he really is, Gerry!
I love giving his lookis a name, Doug. He’s have palled up with Cyril.
LOL!
Wow, seven feet, that is quite a leap! Sounds like you have the best scritching techniques down pat! Adorable Andy pics!
– Okay please feel free to edit or delete this longer than usual part. I agree with you about the quote and period. If the entire sentence is a quote, the period goes inside, if the quote isn’t the whole sentence it goes outside. That’s logical. I was told books aren’t done that way now so I had to change mine, but I really don’t think that’s correct. I don’t feel I’m a pedant, in fact I like to break the language rules; even in prose, I sometimes do stuff I feel is poetic or has the sound of real people talking.
Yes, it amazes me a nearly 13-year-old kitty has that much athleticism! He has knocked the cat tree over doing t, so I make sure it is secure against the wall.
I tend to write the way I talk, so those lapses in my orthographic compliance with standard practice I regard as conversational English, acceptable to all but the most proper users of the language.
Sometimes, I catch myself using something like German word order and make a conscious decision to leave it that way when it sounds right read out loud. More times than not, though, I’ll rewrite it to follow English grammar rules, thinking clarity is improved.
The rewrite often feels stilted and old fashioned to me, something that my 12th grade English teacher might say or write. You know, the 65-year-old, blue haired 12th grade teacher who said “Wed-nes-day” and “preh-tee”, not “pur-dee” like every other Nebraskan!
Though it doesn’t look like it, I rarely post the first draft of my posts. The record rewrite is somewhere over 45 revisions, some for those missed typos we all suffer, most to rewrite captions that read uncomfortably out loud.
Another thing I’m guilty of is writing in the passive, something I will convert to the active when it tightens up the text. Most of us follow many blogs and I recognize a tight sentence reads faster than one of those complex, adjective rich sentences I am prone to write, like this overly long and comma rich sentence. Ha!
Is that the carrier that takes him to the vet? It’s astounding that he’s not scared of it!
When Andy’s brother, the late Dougy, was alive, that way the carrier that fit both kitties for grooming and veterinarian appointments.
After Dougy died, I went to a lighter carrier that has zipper closures and a handle that extends from one end and wheels on the other. You can pull it that way or use the strap handle on top to carry your pet. It was advertised as a carrier suitable for air travel because it is compact and light. Andy, incidentally, doesn’t protest when I put him in the carrier, unlike his late brother. Persian cats can’t fly, incidentally, because of their “smooshed” muzzles that cause breathing issues. I was unaware of that till a friend who has three cats told me.)
The blue carrier also has a pull handle but comes with four wheels instead of just two in the lighter one. I’ll probably donate to someone with a fat cat, multiple cat, or a small dog someday, but Andy’s use of it makes that unlikely to happen soon.
The blue carrier with two cats in it was a bit heavy for me to load in my station wagon, though I was in better shape when it was in use. The new one fits on the front passenger’s seat, so Andy gets a more pleasant trip to appointment than he and Dougy got in the blue carrier. Dougy used to whine the whole way to and from appointments; Andy is calm and usually just reclines inside the carrier till he get to the destination.
My cats will plqy on the stacked carriers. They don’t become afraid till they hear one open.
LOL! They do love high places, don’t they? I leave the blue carrier and another one open for kitty caves. The thought is that being able to “hide” in them makes them less scary when thy have to travel in them.