I wake up late, around 2 p.m., on a Wednesday in March after writing two genxchronicle.com stories. One is about Rex Tillerson’s firing as Secretary of State, and one is about the significance of the time 11:11.
When I sit up I see that Copper is sleeping on the lounge chair in my bedroom, which has some clothes on it. So she’s not just on top of my jeans, but she’s in my jeans. There’s a belt around my jeans, the buttons are open, and she’s literally sleeping in the seat of the pants.
It’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my life, it’s just absolutely so precious. It makes me feel so good to think that she felt comfortable enough to sleep in my clothes, and I also think it means that she wanted to be near me, and to smell my scent.
We still haven’t actually shared a bed together for the night. I mean we hang out on the bed together sometimes, and we hang out on the couch together sometimes, but she doesn’t sleep with me in the bed at night. She just hasn’t been ready to take that step. So to see her sleeping inside the seat of my jeans makes me feel so good. It makes me feel like she’s getting closer to taking the risk that I hope she takes and sleeping on the bed with me at night.
The funny thing is, I have to go out soon to pick up my laundry, and I have no other clothes, so I really need those jeans. So I say hey Copper, I’m sorry Copper, but I need those jeans. Then I move toward her. She sits up, then stands up, then jumps down off the chair, and there are my jeans free for me to take. When I pick them up, I feel the inseam where she had been sitting, and it’s totally and completely warm. Just so cozy and warm. It’s incredible. It’s like she warmed up my jeans for me with her Essence and her love. What a great treat from your beloved cat. So that’s pretty cool. We’ll see what happens next.
At around 5 a.m., I’m sitting in the kitchen in my office swivel chair looking out the big window at the night sky. I’m listening to Phil Collins belt out In The Air Tonight, a classic 80’s song, and it’s really inspiring and it really chills me out. I’ve always loved this song, like so many of my Generation X compatriots. It really symbolized and represented a specific time and period in history. It was the 80’s, Wall Street, excessive greed, Yuppies, Miami Vice. It was also the faint yet real possibility of racial reconciliation through new examples being set in popular culture, such as the aforementioned Miami Vice. Plus there was the success of hip hop music in crossing over to the mainstream. So there was hope, if only just a little.
After listening to a minute of the song, I hear a slight slurping or rustling noise coming from the other end of the kitchen,. I swivel my chair, and I see Copper at the entryway to the kitchen, standing in front of her water bowl. She turns her head to look at me, and she gives me a look and a gaze of sheer chill, as if she could care less about me. She looks at me as if she’s saying “Hey dude what’s up? I see you’re not up to much, so I’m really not very interested in what you’re doing. Nice to see you though. I’m going to go back to drinking water now.” That’s what her look says.
And that’s exactly what she does. For the next five or six minutes, Copper has her head buried in her water bowl. She’s drinking and sipping away. It’s absolutely crazy for me to see, and to witness. I’m fascinated by it, I really am. Because I have no idea how long cats normally drink for, but this seems like a really really really long time.
Then I start to wonder whether she had an especially salty meal today or something like that. But I feed her everything she eats, and it consists of Rabbit and Pea Select Protein dry food, Rabbit and Pea Select Protein wet food, Greenies dental treats in Chicken, Salmon, Ocean Fish, and Tempting Tuna, and Dried Chicken Treats. That’s all she eats. Plus the ocassional treat of a real sardine, or some tuna, but she doesn’t really like human food. She’s a picky eater, but that’s OK, because I love her, so who cares?
The thing is, she’s never been this thirsty before, at least not that I’ve seen. So I Google how much do cats drink, and I see that if they eat wet food then they drink less, because wet food is about 80% water. But if they’re only eating dry food, which is only about 10% water, then they drink a lot more. I make a mental note to make sure I give her enough wet food every day, even though she doesn’t really like it. But I’ll try different kinds. I’ll even try the cheap stuff, the Fancy Feast, or whatever, just to make sure she eats some wet food. I’ve tried it before, but I’ll try it again, because I don’t want her to be so thirsty.
In any case, though, it’s really cool to watch and listen to her drinking, and it just relaxes me to see her enjoying herself and fulfilling her bodily needs. After about six minutes she moves over to her food bowl, buries her head in the food, and proceeds to eat for about three minutes straight. So she’s really taking care of what she needs to take care of right now. But she seems like she’s enjoying it too, she seems like she’s relaxed and at peace. She’s totally unconcerned about what I’m doing at the other end of the kitchen, which is great.
In fact, I take all this as a sign that we’re getting closer and closer. Because we’re more and more relaxed around each other. She can see me in the kitchen and decide she wants to drink water and eat food and not pay me any mind. I can do the same with her. I can just look out the window and listen to Phil Collins.
We’re so in tune with each other, we’re like an old married couple. I mean we love each other unconditionally, but we don’t need to talk or engage with each other every second of the day. We can just do our own thing. Which is pretty darn cool. We’ll see what happens next.
Around midnight on Wednesday, I head into the bedroom to chill out for a little while. I see Copper lounging, maybe sleeping, in the cat bed. But the interesting thing is she’s sleeping on top of one of my t-shirts. It’s a grey Old Navy t-shirt, which she somehow dragged or moved or pulled or brought over to the cat bed. Then she somehow lifted it up and put it in the cat bed, and then decided to plop on top of it and sleep on it. She’s just so funny it’s incredible. It really cracks me up. Because where did she get that t-shirt, I wonder? I mean I had a few pieces of old clothes lying around near my laundry bag. Maybe she walked over to it and found a T-shirt and brought it over to the cat bed. Who knows?
One thing I do think it means is that she’s getting closer and closer to finally taking the leap and sleeping in the bed with me. Because when I wake up in the morning some mornings now, she’s asleep in the cat bed about six feet away from me. I’ve been sleeping in my bed, and she’s been sleeping in the cat bed on the floor. So we’ve both been sleeping in the same room, she just hasn’t taken the leap of getting into the bed with me yet.
So I think Copper sleeping on my t-shirt was a way of her getting used to my scent again. It’s like she wants to be near me, and she wants to sleep on the bed with me, but she’s just not quite ready. The next best thing for her is to sleep on one of my t-shirts in the cat bed. That’s my theory at least. We’ll see what happens next.
