Lap Top Cat

Little Mad is still exploring her new environment and this has caused me to abandon a long extablished pattern. I have been forced to turn on my heating because I cannot stand the cold drafts caused by her rigid ever-open door policy. Until now I have been in habit of avoiding the act of flicking that little switch from HW to CH/HW until the glorious sixth day of November ....

(OK Parenthetical paragraph to explain Nov 6. The fifth, of course, is Bonfire Night and for some longish spell of years during the '70's and '80's a certain school's annual bonfire, pig-roast and firework display marked the last day of the year when it was possible to stand outdoors, drinking alcohol and eating chunks of dead animal, without either becoming a victim of hypothermia or else sinking into a muddy quagmire ... although the latter calamity was always the more likely. As the years turned into decades I grew more and more cantakerously miserly in my determination that no heating was required until the bonfires' flames had died.)

So ... Mirelly was born in a barn, a true wild thing (but with a soppy fondness for having her belly fur ruffled so long as the ruffler is prepared to accept the occasional need for reconstructive surgery of the lower arm). Mirelly hates to be on the wrong side of a closed door. In case I need to make matters clear, any side of a door is the wrong side if a cat decides there is an urgent need to be on the other side. Anyway. She is still exploring and finding her way around. With the heating on, there are now more doors left ajar and so there are more places for her to explore in search of that feline grail: the Ideal Snoozing Spot.

So far, today, she has utterly ignored her previously established ISS (an old banket on an Ikea special) because she can now wander around without me leaping up to push the door as close to the frame as I dare behind her in the vain hope of keeping out the autumn chill. No. Today she has sought to leap onto my lap the moment I sit down. Being a lazy cow I tend to do a lot of sitting down but having Mirelly on my lap is not just uncommon it almost amounts to a cause for concern. Almost but not quite; sometimes she can be quite affectionate for a cat. Then, when my back was turned, she found a new fun place to sit. Notebook computers get quite warm and the keyboard turns out to be a nicely sprung platform for a fussy felix to use as a bum-warmer while shaking out the chaff and trail dust preparatory to searching out an ISS.

Little Mad has had no IT training whatsoever and yet I found her washing a paw languidly whilst my laptop obligingly went about the unexpected chore of upgrading Window's Media Player. Hey! It wasn't me who did it! I'm just a big pink thing who keeps the food coming.