Cats are Passionate Pets
At the beginning (like all good stories).
Our cat used to belong to the lady three houses down on our street. The cat always hung around our house and every Christmas, the lady would put a scrunchie with a little bell around her neck. And through this each year, we started calling her Jingle and that remains her name.
I never put any food or water out for her for the first year since I knew where she belonged. After the first year, I started putting food and water out since she was always at our house and had started looking scrawny. At that time I started paying attention to her and petting her. At one point, the lady’s husband was out walking and noticed her at our house and she came and got her. It looked more like kidnapping as the lady took her back because Jingle fussed and fought to get free the entire time as she walked back to her house.
She loved getting attention from anybody that came to our house. Our grandson would play with her as he toddled around and she became part of the family. She still was an outside cat and had always been one. I would go outside and sit in the glider where she would constantly rub my legs until jumping up beside me for more attention. She always wanted me to hold her and pet her.
Fast forward 12 years…
We had a very cold spell of weather for this area and the forecast was to go down to 0° F., that was when she made it indoors. She still wanted to go out after it warmed up and I generally had to bring her in at night. After being brought inside, she took advantage of it and played the ham, wanting constant attention. Now, she is eager to get outside early every morning, that is, unless it’s cold outside. Now she is a patio cat and generally sits down and looks through the screen to survey the backyard, rarely going out into the yard.
It took a while but she finally started sleeping at the foot of the bed at night. After getting used to sleeping on the bed, she came up to the side of my pillow around 2:30 am one night and started lightly raking her nails across my forehead. After waking me up, I gave her a light tap on the head to register my displeasure of being woken and closed my eyes. She drew back and popped me in the middle of my forehead with her paw to my surprise. As long as I kept my eyes open she was fine.
Since then it has been a pretty regular occurrence usually between 2:00 am and 3:30 am that she wants attention. I call it her “adore me” sessions, as she sits beside my pillow and expects to be petted. As I pet her and talk to her lightly, she will frequently look over to ensure that my eyes are open. After being admonished for closing my eyes a couple of times while petting her, I now keep them open until she is satisfied with the petting. She usually ends the session by walking around me a couple of times pausing each time for some more petting before going back to the foot of the bed to sleep.
