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Are your humans busy? Do they flit about the house doing stuff?  I felt quite exhausted the other day watching Mum being busy.  Let me ‘splain.

GibbsIt was the first day of the New Year.  Now, to us cats, that means absolutely nothing.  A day is a day and a year is a year.  What happens in between is of no importance whatsoever as long as we have our food at the right time and in the right quantities and your lap is available to splodge out on.  If there is a wildlife programme on television, we would like to watch that, even if you’d rather watch Downton Abbey or Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars in the US).  As you can see, we have simple needs.

So, it was the first day of the New Year and Mum was being busy doing stuff.  First, she got down the old calendar off the wall (she has two on the go). On the table, the new ones were waiting patiently for her to write in them.  While she was transferring over birthdays and anniversaries to the new pages of one calendar, and the other one had hospital appointments and stuff written on it, the washing machine was doing its thing – equally busy – in the kitchen.

Then Mum put the washed jumpers on a clothes’ dryer in the dining room and put some more clothes in the washing machine.  I’m sure the washing machine would have preferred a coffee break or even a lie down before it had to go to work all over again. Mum went back to the calendars.  Who knew there was so much to be written about and celebrated?

We cats’ don’t have this problem, you know.  We don’t need to remember anyone’s birthday or anniversary.  We don’t keep the dates in our heads of when we first arrived at your home, so I find it very strange behaviour that you humans do this kind of thing.  I felt so freaked out watching her do this that I just had to run up and down the hallway a few times.  This always rucks up the carpet runner, so it ends up quite near the front door in a big heap of scrolly mountains.  It is great fun, but Mum doesn’t think so when she has to straighten it out again.

Gibbs on the little table‘Gibbs, Mum’s busy, can’t you do something else rather than rearrange the carpet?’ I went to lie on top of the little table in the dining room.  This is a good vantage point and I can watch everything that’s going on from up here.

In addition to that busy stuff, Mum then carried on being busy by doing something called her ‘accounts.’  I don’t know what they are either, but her face looked a bit serious and scrunched up - a bit like a cat’s bum, if you know what I mean.  After she did the accounts, she had some lunch, put the second lot of clothes with the jumpers on the dryer, and went upstairs.

I followed her to see what she was going to do next.  She switched her ‘puter thing on and began tapping away.  I jumped up on her desk to see what she was doing.  ‘I’m writing my new book, Gibbs,’ she told me. I tried to feign interest but to be honest with you, all her busyness made me so tired that I had to lie down and go to sleep.  I heard a sigh as she tried to wrestle the notes from under my belly, unsuccessfully.     

The tapping stopped for a little while because she couldn’t work from her notes (my belly was asleep on them!) but it wasn’t long before she began writing something else.  Then all of a sudden, she stopped, switched off the ‘puter thing, and went downstairs.  I was dreaming so I didn’t go down to see what she was going to do next but when I did finally go down, you’ll be amazed at the sight before me.

There, on the sofa, was Mum stretched out, fast asleep. And lying next to her, his head on the cushions next to Mum’s, was Casey – also fast asleep. Obviously being busy leads to having to have naps but I don’t know what Casey’s excuse was!

GibbsSeeing Mum and Casey fast asleep on the sofa made me feel sleepy again.  I jumped up on my little seat that I prefer, gave my nether regions a good wash and then fell asleep.  

If you see your human being busy, flitting about doing ‘stuff’, prepare for the sudden slump and get ready to lie next to them and purr like crazy.  As you know, our purring energises humans, so they’ll wake up feeling refreshed. Although, stupidly, they don’t rest enough but carry on being busy.      

Another tactic to try is when they are already sitting down, and want to get up, to start being busy again, just sit on their face.  They might go a funny colour and act a bit dramatic by throwing their arms about in the air, but don’t let that fool you.  You know that if you release them, they will just resort to that busyness and this is the year that we make our humans slow down and smell the coffee – if it’s not the coffee then it’s our bottoms they’ll be smelling!

See you!

Gibbs xx

 

Dogs Come when Called

"Dogs come when called. Cats take a message and get back to you."

"Of course, every cat is really the most beautiful woman in the room."

Edward Verrall Luca (essayist)