TB is a very smart cat. I’ve known since the day he showed up at the back door that I was his to command. We have had a battle for ‘alpha’ from the very beginning. I insist that I’ve won, only to realize that he’s totally played me and I’m doing exactly as he desires.
One thing that surprised me was his desire to sleep under the blankets at night. My dogs always did, but never my cats.
But TB has rules for this and it all depends on the ambient temperature … and … what time of night it is.
When it’s warm, he sleeps peacefully on top of the blankets, curled up next to the crook in my legs. When it’s cold, though, he finds his way underneath and at some point, I wake up to sharp little claws kneading at my calves. It’s startling, especially when I don’t remember lifting the covers for him to crawl in.
TB generally wakes with the dawn. How he knows that has happened under a pile of warm blankets, I have no idea, because it’s not time-based, it’s about dawn, no matter what time of year it is (summer is rough). But we get up and I go to the bathroom, open the door to the porch so he can greet the morning, and then I make sure he has food and water before going back to bed.
If the outside world doesn’t give him enough entertainment, he comes back in and tears around from the floor to my side, to the back corner of the bed, up on his cat tree, back to my body, down to the floor and on and on until I wake up enough to fully play with him.
Now, the funniest thing that happens is his morning go-back-to-sleep requirement. He wants to go under the blankets, but not all the way. No, he must go under just the comforter. Nothing deeper. Not under the sheet, not under the blanket (that shows up when it finally gets cold enough for me), but under the top comforter.
I’ve tested this over and over. At night, when he paws at the blankets, I’ll lift the comforter to see if he wants that. Nope, all of the blankets. Okay, fine. In the morning, I’ll lift the blankets and he sits beside my head and glares at me. I should know better. I separate the comforter away from the stack and voila, that’s perfect. Thank you, Mom. I knew you’d figure it out.
If, however, I have fallen asleep and don’t respond quickly enough to him in the morning, he heads to the floor, walks to the end of the bed and crawls up underneath the comforter, then snuggles in to his normal spot behind my legs – on top of the sheet. He’ll stay there long after I’ve finally gotten out of bed, safe in his spot.
The boy knows what he wants and will go to great lengths to get it. Yes, I’m the alpha. Until I’m not. I woke him up to take the picture and right now he’s loving on me, telling me gently that it’s time for me to open the screen door so he can explore. If I don’t hurry, he’ll get a little mouthy and then get even pushier. Whoops, the mouthy just happened. I’d better hurry.
