A steaming hot loogie of love...

Now that Arnie is growing out of his kitten phase he doesn't even try to camouflage those moments when he merely tolerates my presence. All cats do this but when they are kittens they are prone to exuberant snuggling and purring more often. Arnie still does that but then there are those times when I will catch him just sitting there looking at me with that "Why aren't you giving me a treat right now, you silly human?" look on his face.

He also has this clever way to fool me into thinking he adores me. He will jump on my lap, climb up under my chin, purring loudly, and nuzzle me for a few minutes. This is to make me let my guard down. I start to think how much he loves me because he is going out of his way to show me. Then he will do one of two things. Sometimes, after all the nuzzling and purring he will turn his body around to show me his butt at super closeup range. Then he'll turn his head and look at me proudly as if to say "Yes, I know...I have a magnificent butt!" Occasionally, he will emphasize this with a triumphant fart which nearly kills me. Other times he will nuzzle and purr and then sit gazing lovingly into my eyes. This move is always the precursor to the sudden sneeze - right in my face. If it's a good sneeze, he will successful blow a booger out which will cling to my glasses or cheek. I've fooled myself into thinking this is his gift. To think otherwise just pisses me off.

I do still amaze him sometimes though. Mostly with my astounding magic trick of making things disappear when I flush the toilet. He'll come into the bathroom when I'm in there and excitedly wait for the big flush. He watches the swirling water and looks back at me with "How did you do that???" In the ways of the Tidy Bowl, I am his goddess. Which reminds me though - I am starting to forget what it was like to actually use my home bathroom alone. It took some getting used to having his little head peering at me from around the wastebasket. At first I felt violated. Now he doesn't hide it so much. He's discovered that he likes being in the bathtub (as long as there's no water in it) and he sits in it watching me like he's in some pricey box seat at the opera. I wonder what he'd do if I broke out in song?