We have a resident in our home that loves to cuddle.  It’s either that or he is attacking my feet.  We’re talking sharp teeth and claws here that draw blood.   Oliver the kitten.  I suppose it’s just the way kittens are – they play and pounce and scramble and explore as if they have springs in their legs and a never ending supply of energy.  Suddenly the energy supply is completely run down to zero and the kitten collapses in to a sweet ball of sleeping fur.  I like to say that when Oliver is doing that he is simply recharging his batteries.  He’s a quick recharger, too.

Oliver’s curiosity is boundless.  I am amazed how he goes a little farther every day.  When he first got here and was less than a pound in weight, he only explored as far as about two of the rooms of the house and stayed on the floor.  Each day he goes a little farther and ends up a little higher – from the coffee table to the couch to the kitchen chair to the kitchen counter.  <sigh> There’s no stopping him.

There are times we have to discipline his wild curious energy by a spray of a water bottle or kitty prison – we put him under an over-turned laundry basket.  (He hasn’t learned to get out …. Yet.)

The funniest thing he has learned to do is he gets to the kitchen counter and parks himself on top of the coffee maker.  It’s like his perch.  He fits now but a full grown cat will not squeeze into that spot.  He hovers on the top of the coffee maker when Kristen or I am getting dinner ready as if he is over-seeing our production.  Have you seen the movie “Ratatouille”?  It’s a computer-animated Disney movie about a determined young rat who dreams of becoming a renowned French chef.  I think Oliver has become our ‘CATatouille’!

Anyways … it has been interesting with a kitten in the house.  Cats have certainly earned a special reputation over the years.  Here’s what others say about cats:

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
Mark Twain

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat.
Edgar Allan Poe

‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’
Lewis Carroll

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier ‘n puttin’ it back in.
Will Rogers

When I played in the sandbox, the cat kept covering me up.
Rodney Dangerfield

I am really a dog person.  I am learning to appreciate cats, though.  I would love to be as light and flexible on my feet as they are.  But more so, I love their curiosity.  I think it is great to always wake up and want to go a little farther … a little higher … and to always be discovering something new.

But I’m not going to scratch and claw people along the way.

Stupid cat.

Purrrrrrrrrrr

Just Laurel

Ecclesiastes 7:23-25 “I am determined to be wise” but this was beyond me.  Whatever exists is far off and most profound—who can discover it? So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.