A Precious Commodity

I should have paid attention to him, but I was busy getting ready for bed. I know better than to ignore him. He has needs too and he has no playmate, no one with whom to romp and play and wrestle. I learned my lesson quick enough and finally carved some time out for our kitty.

We have a good cat. He doesn’t cause problems or tear things up, with the exception of the one time that he got out of the house and was gone for a week. He sleeps most of the time, but he is a cat and he does have times of high energy. Since he is the only pet and his is by himself all day I’m sure he gets lonely. We try to pay a lot of attention to him. He loves to lie on our laps in the evening. He especially misses me as I am doing homework all the time. Before I started back to school he really enjoyed our nighttime routine where I would sit in my chair and he would curl up on my chest.

Now I sit in my chair at the computer and complete my homework. He lets me know he needs attention by scratching the back of my office chair. He is de-clawed in the front so he doesn’t hurt any of the furniture. If that doesn’t work, then he will typically bit my legs. He doesn’t bit hard, but just tries to get my attention. He loves doing that to my wife in the mornings to remind her to feed him or clean out his box.

I was getting ready for bed last night and Buddy was trying to get my attention. I was trying to ignore him. That’s never a good idea because he won’t let me sleep if I don’t pay attention, but I was stubborn. He threw me a curve ball and changed his game plan. I was standing in the living room brushing my teeth, standing only in my underwear. He was walking through my legs and desperately trying to get me to pay him some mind.

Then the sharp pain hit me. No blood of course, just a light nip and the tip. He stood up on his back legs and bit me in my flanderdoodle. He wanted to play and fight and I was not being cooperative. He knew I was going to bed and that this was his last chance. He took it. I inspected the affected area and no damage was done so I capitulated, and got his sock. We have a sock that we use for him. It covers the length of the arm, up to the bicep, and allows him to play-fight – bite and scratch with his back claws. He really gets after it, panting and huffing. We fought until he was satisfied and then I went to bed. Lesson learned.