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!)