Soft Kitty...

Considering the popularity of the tv sit-com, "Big Bang Theory" I'll wager I am far from being alone when I say I really do like this show. Be honest now and 'fess up if you like this show even a little bit or perhaps, as much as I do. I try to catch the regular weekly broadcast and I think I know just about every other channel on our cable system that carries reruns of this program too -and I try to watch most of those shows as well.

Face it -I'm as addicted to this program as I was -okay, still am -to Law and Order too! Just ask my kids and they'll tell you that if either one of these shows is airing, odds are that I have my tv set tuned into that station at that time.

But neither of those programs really has any bearing on my post here tonight. Well, Big Bang Theory sort of does because of course, there's that song about the "soft kitty" that Sheldon always wants Penny to sing to him in his moments when he feels the extreme need for comfort of some type.

And right about now, as I am trying to type this post, our newest addition to our family here -a sweet, fluffy, adorably loveable little kitten -which the kids and Mandy named "Octavia" but who gets called "Tavie" -a name which, of course, she pays no attention to being addressed and just goes her merry little way, bouncing around from one piece of furniture to another, antagonizing the dog into chasing and playing with her, pestering the other cat -Miss Pearl -who is the ultimate in regal attitude and elegance and extremely adept at totally ignoring the antics of this kitten -little fool is probably how Pearl regards Tavie.

Well tonight, after almost upending me out of my computer chair while I was going down through Facebook postings by jumping up on the back of the chair and I was sort of leaning back in the seat at that point in time and well, it jerked the chair and I almost landed upside down with the chair on top of me and the kitten being the potential cause of it all. Fortunately, I regained the balance and equilibrium with the chair and didn't get tossed to the floor as I had thought initially was going to happen to me.

No, I sat here and the kitten squirmed around behind me, sharing the seat of the chair for a while until she managed to get around to my front and decided she wanted to be sweet and loving and needed a nice, fairly large, very soft (apparently) place to lay her head and go to sleep and to her, it is pretty safe to say that she found my bust to be just the ideal spot to repose!

To top it all off, the darned kitten also decided now was a really ideal time -and place -to do a little bit of kitten stuff -kneading!

And all of her actions, nice and sweet as she must have thought she was being to me, really weren't what I was wanting at that point in time.

Especially since as I was rubbing the back of her neck and top of her head, I felt a couple tiny but tell-tale kind of lumps indicating she had other friends she was bringing along to our little nestling party here.

Yeah, the poor kitten has fleas!

So, at almost 1 a.m.  I decided now was as good a time as any to give her a dip in the tub and a little rubdown with some good old flea shampoo.

Because our other cat, Miss Pearl, the queen of the household, responds totally differently to getting a bath -she will stand perfectly still in the tub and wait and watch while whoever is bathing an animal at the time gets through with the shampoo and rinse of the dog -or another cat too, if that were the case.

But little Miss Tavie not so docile! Matter of fact, she squirmed and scratched at me, at the rim of the tub, fought me tooth and nail,she did but I finally did get her wetted down, shampooed and when it came time to rinse, she was a mite calmer. Once out of the tub and wrapped in a big old bath towel, she was pretty quiet and seemed to hold no grudges against me.

I let her go and since I had the tub half-full of luke warm water and had the flea shampoo out, I decided the time had come -actually it was very, VERY overdue -to give Sammy, the little mutt, a nice flea shampoo bath too.

Now Sammy's response to a call to come get a bath is such that nowadays, he tucks his tail between his legs and tries to slink off, looking for a convenient place to hide where whoever wants to dunk him will have issues trying to reach him. Tonight, he apparently thought by going into my bedroom where there was no light shining directly down on him, I wouldn't think to look for him there but too bad, so sad,sorry for your luck there, Sam!

He forgot I can still pick him up and carry him into the bathroom which is what I did.

It used to be he would come willingly into the bathroom and once in there, after having his collar removed, often he would just hop into the tub of warm water simply because it was there,waiting for him. Not so tonight. Although he didn't fight me, I did have to lift him up and deposit him in the water. However, once I got him well-soaked and then lathered up, he stood very still and allowed me to give him a really good "rub-a-dub-dub:" and hopefully, got rid of a few of those darned pesky little fleas that have been causing all kinds of itching on the poor little guy.

So I got him out of the tub, tried to towel dry him a bit in between his decision to do a crazy race and chase routine in the bathroom, as he ran from one place to another and then would race back to me and do the whole racing/chasing routine all over again. It was more than obvious that he felt pretty good about his nice clean appearance and maybe even was already feeling a mite of relief from the damned old fleas too.

So, with both those animals all nice and clean, I decided I would play a couple games on the computer while waiting for my eyes to get heavy and be able to go to bed without worrying about being unable to fall asleep.

I was busy playing this one game I like -where you hit a ball and try to break all the different colored bubbles -when lo and behold, here comes the kitten again!

Only this time she immediately jumped up on my chest, did a couple little twists and turns to make darned sure her tail was waving ever so nicely directly in my face, right across my glasses as a matter of fact -and totally obscuring my vision!

I tried to get her rearranged so that  I could have a little bit of a sighting of the balls I wanted to aim at, but after several tries to get her to move with no success, I ended up unceremoniously dumping her little butt off my chest and on to the floor.

Only to have her immediately take up her old position on top of me all over again.

And that's exactly where she's been laying now -ever since I started to type this piece! Just snuggled up as nice as can be,with her backside tucked ever so nicely directly under my chin.

Yes, Tavie -you are a nice kitty, and most definitely, right now, a very soft kitty too,as a matter of fact.

I wonder now if she will maintain this pose after I go out to my room and crawl into bed?

Probably not! She'll probably launch directly into her "flying cat" routine that she likes to do when jumping off my bed in the middle of the night!