Marko Needs to Cuddle

I wasn't planning on giving you a cat picture every Friday. Honest! And I had a great idea for a post for tonight. Freed from the bonds of having to write every day (thank you, master), I've been experiencing a flood of creativity. I have notes for a few new posts and hopes of finishing some others that have been languishing in various stages of undress.

But just as I was settling down to a nice peaceful evening at home with one dinner and two cats and my laptop, my sister called. She is, as my mother puts it, going through a very hard time, so I played therapist for a hundred and forty-three minutes! The silent type of therapist, mostly. I listened through eating dinner, sitting on the couch, locking away a huge bag of cat food before Ketzel tore it open, e-mailing the philosopher with progress reports on the conversation, even peeing - which I think is an extremely rude thing to do while on the phone. But I did apologize first, and we do have a history of conversations where one of us sat on the edge of the tub while the other one sat on the toilet. (I sure hope that image is titillating to at least one of you out there, because that may be the only kinky thing about this post.)

Anyway, I did my big sister thing, and then the philosopher wrote to say he wouldn't phone tonight, and I admitted that it was really ok because I was exhausted from the call and my ear hurt. For real. That was not a metaphor.

Hence this cop-out of a Friday cat-blogging post.

The picture is nearly 3 years old, when Marko was about 2-1/2. And I must admit that the blue dog was put in position after my boy fell asleep. However, the inspiration for the photo was a real incident. I have a stuffed animal in the form of a black cat in red velvet overalls that used to sit perched on my desk. It is rather long and lanky and sits like a person, not like a cat. Well, one day, Marko stole it. I came across him lying in the living room, stretched out against the purloined toy, clearly in need of some sort of security blanket substitute. Selfish, mean mommy that I am, I reclaimed the thing, but ever after was on the lookout for a stuffed animal of his own that he could snuggle and love. I believe I adopted the blue dog from IKEA. Marko never did seem to bond with it the way he did with that black cat, but I tried my best to let him know that it was there for him when he needed it.

They do look really cute together. And all kittens need to cuddle. . .

PS - i'd like to offer an apology for haranguing my devoted readers about not commenting. the philosopher called me to task on it, and he is right, of course. he is always right. my behaviour was most unseemly and i will end my kvetching. you are all most welcome here, and need not feel guilty about peeking in and then going away with no word of farewell. i am just grateful that you stopped by. my master is trying very hard to train me to be a well-behaved kitten, and my bad manners should not be taken as any sort of reflection on either his efforts or his standards.