More moggy memories ...

As cat tales seemed to capture the interest of a number of peers, I thought a separate discussion on the subject might be appreciated.

I will start the ball rolling with an item about my cat, Smokey.

At one time, my bed was situated in a position where I could sit up in bed and open the glass door leading to the outside of the house, without actually getting out of bed.

When Smokey wanted to go outside during the night, she developed a four-stage system of annoyances to attract my attention.

Stage 1: she would walk across the area of the timber floor that was not covered by carpet, with her claws open, thus making a clickety sound.

Stage 2: she would walk heavily across the room.

Stage 3: she would gallop across the room.

Stage 4: she would crawl along upside down under my bed, hanging on with her claws.

Now the interesting thing is that, while Stage 4 annoyance always did the trick, she would always run through the various stages, as I would sometimes be aroused by annoyances 1, 2 or 3.

Later I developed some kind of unconscious rapport and would automatically waken when she wanted to be let out, or let back in again. I could do this without interruption to the rhythm of my sleep.