Normally when I come home after a long day, Hope is standing right at the door, purring so loudly that I worry for her emotional state of mind. I pick her up and she literally snuggles, purring like crazy, and while I realize that it is really about the possibility of a Fancy Feast meal, I like to think she is happy to see me.
BUT – sometimes – once in a blue moon, I walk in the door and the small purring machine is NOT waiting for me. My hallway (if you can call it that) is empty and barren. She is nowhere to be seen. I have to admit I have a moment of loneliness when this occurs, I miss being greeted like that, so I call out, “Hope?” No response. I check the sink. She’s not there. “Hope?” I call out again, like a jealous lover. I move into the apartment, still no furry purring creature …
… and I walk into my main room and this is what I see.
She is so in the midst of doing her own thing, sleeping so deeply that even when I pet her she barely stirs … and it just cracks me up because it makes me realize that I do not have a pet, really. I have a roommate. I love that. I love when she just goes ahead and does her own thing – although sometimes it is amusing when she follows me from room to room, even deciding to urinate when I decide to urinate … like: Hon, you don’t need to sync up your bladder with mine, seriously, just chillax … but I love it best when I see her splayed out in some napping pose like that and can’t even be bothered to greet me at the door.
Of course once she realizes I’m home, she becomes a pest and a half, due to the impending Fancy Feast ritual.
Heart crack.
Look at her!! She is sleeping SO HARD!
I love how her paws are folded so delicately – and she appears to have fallen asleep mid-stretch.
Hope is SO cute! I remember my cat, Meg, used to sleep just like that… she’d catch me watching her sometimes and just lazily open her eyes to stare back, as if saying, “Yes, I’m awake now.. what can you do for me?”
Now there’s a furball who could drive a girl to catnapping.
I love Hope……
Haha…my dog does the same thing. If I come home on time or a little later she is always looking out the front window, and then she races to the side door to greet me. If I come home a half an hour early though, I almost always catch her sleeping and she wakes up with this confused, or maybe bemused, look on her face for a moment. I wonder if she can, if not really tell time, recognize a pattern on the clock.
Sheila, I am in RI and I just bought a postcard for you of a boat in Newport named Hope, not realizing that Hope is the state motto of Rhode Island! See what you can learn from a postcard!? Isn’t she the most aptly named cat?
Kerry – ha! Believe it or not, that is one of the reasons why I decided to keep her name “Hope” even though I’m not wacky about it as a name (or as a concept. No, just kidding). It’s the RI state motto!! Hope is REPRESENTING!
That cat is one of the best things that has happened recently. She makes me feel like you are cared for, when I am not with you. I love her.
Oh, how sweet. I love the way her paws are crossed, too. The look on her face suggests she is dreaming of the Fancy Feast ritual!
I just mean, Hope can love you when I can not. She is a surrogate “deck girl”. I love that cat. I didn’t mean to make you sound needy- I had had a bit o’ wine when I had posted that above post. Sorry.