The Morning Routine

I just noticed this morning that it's been 12 days since my last blog. My sister is chastising me on her blog for not blogging. So here's the update: Luna is completely recovered now. And making up for lost time.

The normal Luna morning routine:

1) Wake JQ up at 5:30 by either: A) jumping from the dresser onto JQ's stomach,
B) chewing on plant by JQ's head, C) walking up the length of JQ's body and distributing all 11 kitty pounds directly on top of JQ's bladder, or D) sniffing JQ's face so close that kitty whiskers travel up JQ's nose. (Note: JB is spared this portion of the morning routine).

2) Once JQ and/or JB are up, Luna's goal shifts to: get a human to put new food and water in the kitty bowls. This is accomplished by one of several devious methods including but not limited to: A) throwing herself onto the ground and purring. This will induce human to bend over and give Luna a scratch. Once human has taken bait and bent over to scratch Luna, Luna will jump up and move just few feet away - closer to the kitchen, coaxing human closer to the goal line. Repeat until Luna is at the entrance to the kitchen, at which point Luna will run to food bowls and look piteously up at human. B) if human is feeling stubborn or slow, Luna may resort to bringing a balled up piece of paper over to the human, batting it around a little, and dialing up the cute factor to 8 or 9. Human will invariably succumb to cuteness and will get up to throw the crumpled paper ball for Luna. Luna will play with it just long enough to get human to smile, then will bring the paper ball back - but not all the way! Luna will leave anywhere from 3 to 5 feet between human and the paper ball so human will have to get up to re-toss the paper ball. Once Luna has gotten the human up, she has only to draw human towards the kitchen by playing the paper tossing game, and then running to the food bowl with a look of wounded exhaustion.

3) Once Luna has been fed, there is a trip to the litter box, followed by intense bathing.

4) After her bath has been successfully completed, Luna begins drills. JB and I have decided these drills are in preparation for the day when the opportunity to escape Outside presents itself. Luna will tear from one corner of the apartment to the other as fast as her kitty legs will allow, skidding across linoleum floors on kitchen mats and thundering across the living room futon. I can't help but wonder what our downstairs neighbors think is happening. It must sound like we've got a Shetland pony up here, being mercilessly driven to a frothing gallop by an elf. How could we explain that no, that's just the sound of our mostly dainty if clumsy orange cat building up her endurance for the long sprint down the apartment stairs.

5) Drills, while intense and borderline alarming, generally don't last more than 30 minutes. Which leaves just enough time for more cuteness and purring before JB and I have to leave for work.

Today we had all the above plus three weeks worth of stored-up meows. It was Luna-soliloquy day. Mark this down on your calendars and show up next year. She was in rare form.

It's nice to have her back.