Adventures with Linus the Cat

In our house we have two adults, two teenagers, a child, a geriatric cat Gabby and a crazy long hair black cat with a white patch on his neck named, Linus. My cat Linus enjoys sleeping on the white couch. I think he feels like he’ll get noticed more if he is there. His other favorite places to sleep include the following: on my bed, under my bed, the top of the stairs, the middle of the stairs, the recliners, and on top of my lap.

I once gave my cats a bowl of milk. They looked at it as if it were poison. They didn’t drink it and I ended up throwing it out. However, if the kids leave their milk out in the morning. Linus feels it’s his duty to jump onto the counter and see what the problem was. I like to think of him as the taste tester, he just does it too late. He sticks his face into the child size Tupperware cup spilling it all over the table and floor. *New rule: if you do not finish your milk you must put it into the fridge to be finished later or put it in the sink.

Just this week while I was finishing watching the program the kids were watching while waiting for the bus, I heard a noise. I turned around and found Linus was standing on the island. I looked at him and said “Really? Get down!” Of course, he got down. Then, after the program was over, I was turning off the lights that weren’t being used and where did I find Linus? Standing on top of the washing machine of course. Isn’t that where all cats hang out in their down time, between sleeping where you want to sit down and eating? This was a first. It was curious as the lid was open and it did take some balancing. Nothing was in the washer at the time and I wonder what he could have been looking for. I do have hopes that he will learn how to do the laundry, as currently it is a job that I haven’t delegated out. It would make up for the fact that he leaves black fur on the white couch and all over the floor all the time.

Last night everyone was in bed and I was turning all the lights off and heading upstairs. Linus was asleep in the recliner. To his benefit, I did wake him up when I turned on a light to check the doors to be sure they were locked. I then went up to bed. He followed. Which leads us to our nightly adventure. Each night the cats come up to bed also. While there are plenty of places to sleep downstairs, they like to sleep with “their” people. So they sleep at the top of the stairs, or in the doorway of our room or our son’s room where they can “stand a post” and be the good guard cats that they are. When that doesn’t work out for them or if I roll over or seem to be too comfortable Linus comes to the rescue. He gets comfortable at my feet or in the space right behind my legs between me and the edge of the bed making it next to impossible to move. If one of the children move to roll over or get up to use the restroom, they will get up, watch them, walk them back to bed, then go back to their posts.

Usually Gabby just goes along with these escapades out of a feeling of obligation. She is old. She is tired, she just wants to eat, sleep and be left alone. She is the cat version of a grumpy old lady and she will nip at you if you aren’t moving to get her food fast enough. Linus however, thinks that it is his job, nay his duty to be with all of us all the time as our guard cat. I am my mother’s daughter. My mother hated cats. I never hated cats, I preferred dogs but due to allergies in the family to dogs, I have cats. Which some people are allergic too also but they deal with it. They have to really. As the kids say these cats are not just cats, they are members of our family. Linus is like one of the kids. He reminds me a lot of my kids actually. When he wants my attention he wants all of it. When he wants to be left alone, well I leave him alone because he’s a cat. If he was a child I would only pretend to leave him alone while sneakily trying to find out why he wanted to be alone. He doesn’t ask for much. I feed him and he gives me his undying love and devotion. How many people can you say that about? Maybe that’s why we get along so well. We speak the same language.