HARMON: The life and times of cats and dogs
Let’s face it. Dogs and sometimes catsare a lot like us. When they put on weight, they tend to snore, sleep more and have mood swings. They crave and need attention, love, someone who cares and who will be there to feed and comfort them. But please Lord, not at 5 a.m.
There’s probably some research somewhere on this subject, but I don’t need to read it. I’m living it and experience beats research every time unless you’re working on a dissertation of some sort. Daisy came in here as a 9-week-old you could hold in your hand and went quickly to about 6 pounds max and now tips the scales at 11.
That could be compared to one of us going from 150 to 300 pounds. You can still hold her in your hand, but not for long and you can see a lot of her hanging off your palm. So she doesn’t get held as often and this causes resentment of sorts making her more irritable, frustrated and likely to snap at folks. You can find her most days laying in her doggy bed in the living room sound asleep and snoring with a frown on her face. She can no longer jump up on the couch and has yet to figure out the problem (unlike us). You can see where jumping up on the couch at 300 pounds would put your couch at risk, so we’re content to just sit, but when she can’t do it, her frustration level goes to the next level. Basically she just wants to sleep and snore.
This would not be a problem, but when you combine the snoring with a need for attention and to be close to her people at night, plus a tendency to bark if she doesn’t get her way, well, you can see the predicament. Leaving her up front means you’re going to be awakened somewhere between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. when she’s decided you’re not coming back and are, in fact, sleeping without her.
If you’ve shut the hall door, she will scratch and bark until you open it. If you leave it open, she’ll crawl under the bed, where an old person can’t reach her and sleep. When this happens, and she’s content, secure and knocked out — she snores.
The snoring has a rhythmical pattern to it but when it’s coming from under the bed and you hear it at 5 a.m., on a morning when sleeping with a slow rain outside and no fleas in the bed could be really nice, it slowly drives you up the wall. If I sound as though I am up the wall, you are probably correct.
But what about the cat? I know, you’re dying to know. Well, truth is, a lot of folks don’t care for cats. Cats are “purrsnickity” and Milo is that way, too. We must feed these things too often, or too much because he’s as fat as the dog. When he lays on his back he looks a lot like a beaver with a skinny tail.
A fat cat purring at 5 a.m., sounds like a freight train on steroids and Milo gets right in my good ear at 5:03. How he knows which ear is the good one, I have no idea, but cold cat nose at 5 a.m., is, well, I’ll tell you what it is. Remember that disgusting trick sixth graders would play on you when they would lick their finger and stick it in your ear? That’s cat nose at 5 a.m.
Another thing that makes this cat “purrsnickity” is the idea that his food bowl has to be topped off (a phrase I use a lot with ice cream). If it isn’t, he’ll paw you until it is, and I haven’t been pawed at 5 a.m., since “slick Willie” Clinton was in the White House. Brings back fond memories until I feel the claws in the side of my cheek and I hear myself say, “Is that you dear?” “Nope” comes the reply, “Time to feed the cat.”
Sonny Harmon is a professor emeritus at Georgia Military College. Visit his blog at http://sharmon09.blogspot.com.
This story was originally published October 13, 2015 at 9:34 PM with the headline "HARMON: The life and times of cats and dogs ."