I laid out some cat treats while the Mountain was racing this evening. My wife is away this week on a cruise to Bermuda aboard the Explorer Of The Seas with friends from work and that's OK by me so long as I have problems in the house with plumbing and cats and my son.

Anyway, I laid out a little treat deal for bedtime and who do you think stayed with it? Yup, it was the momcat Mister Mittens (aka Madam Bubble Belly):



Meanwhile, off on a mussed-up bed the little girl runt cat and her brother went "sphinx" for rest before crashing for the night. I have read many books about cats and their habits and their stages of sleep but I'll be goddamned about catching some sleep and rest with your head up in the air - this is stage #1 of cat sleep when only 1/3rd of the brain shuts down for rest:

Even in a deep sleep cats have their ears perked up high. I can walk or trip by a sleeping cat here and the cat keeps snoring. I can even fart and moan as I go by without the cat moving but part of a cat brain stays awake to listen to sounds it is not familiar with. A loud strange noise in the street near the house will have the cat awake and up and ready for fight or flight in an instant.

Mom Nature has laid in some good stuff to small cats over the milleniums. These are the only wild animals that have permitted themselves to live with humans. They are not domesticated - they do not serve man for any goddamn thing. They tolerate people and will sleep with them and will accept good rubs and pettings but like in the afternoon when Mister Mittens is sleeping in my lap on the recliner, if I pet her down her lower back or near her back legs she will wake up and show me her fangs and have some claws out. She won't strike but when I start rubbing her ears and shoulders she'll go back to a snooze and her paws become small pink pads again. Helluva girl.

Not one man since the beginning of time has ever sheltered three cats and taken them outside and had them in a small herd. They will just go away in three different directions and be cats.