It’s been a long, cold one with frequent hints of frost settling on whiskers, chill-blained toes and other nefarious plots to get a fire built, or at the very least, the heater turned on. So it is with eager anticipation that Chicken has welcomed summer.
Where I have grown accustomed to a lethargic cat in the mornings, firmly fused to the bed and requiring a personalised invitation to even consider leaving it, I am now witness to an early morning training regime being put into practise. The pool makes an ideal lapping shape and what could be more exciting than chasing your sister (or being chased by her) around a high-risk, water area.
Chicken has a phenomenal trump card she pulls out each summer. She manages to max her beguiling beauty by increasing the intensity of those gorgeous blue eyes of hers. Her wish is my command.
unfurling frondly whisker-tips
Sometimes a cat just can’t get close enough to that elusive source of heat. And sometimes a cat is forced to shuffle up irresponsibly close. And sometimes a cat is overcome with blissful sensations of warmth and is mesmorised by the glow. It is precisely at these times that a slight fizzing-pulling sound can be heard if you listen very closely. The sound of whisker-tips curling up into a beautiful display of frondliness.
I know I contain a hefty dose of bias (what parent doesn’t?) yet I have always believed Chicken is simply awesome. Even more awesome than this cat. She transcends feline, extending it to, dare I say, super-feline? There have been a few clues along the w
ay:
There is that glint in the eye (only caught at a 47° refractory angle) which could be interpreted as being mischievous but you know there is a energiser-hamster on a wheel behind those eyes and it is working overtime! Scheming, inventing, solving and some plotting, no doubt. That languid paw stretch that just “happens” to pat you across the face when attention is deemed due. That not-so-subtle siamese voice, not beckoning, not calling, not asking nor inviting. No, that siamese voice demanding you report to her at once! Who thought I would ever be playing a landlubber version of marco polo with my cat?
I felt I needed no further proof of her intellect, what I never anticipated was her intelligence.
chicken learns activity diagrams
I have always suspected chicken of being more than just a cat. What owner/slave doesn’t harbour secret aspirations of their cat quietly plotting world domination? She is cunning though, got to grant her that, and catching her in the act of self-education is often, well let’s just say, difficult.
I was rather amused to return to magpie one day and find chicken avidly absorbed in the activity diagram on the screen.
All I can say is that is that I am immensely proud of her wanting to design and model her plan out before she even considers executing it. Perhaps I have been more influential than I previously realised.
I am the proud, often astounded and generally amused slave/owner of a particularly odd siamese, commonly known as Chicken. (The name is another story best told another time.) Chicken has always shown a fondness for technology and a natural inclination when it comes to things bearing a lovely warm fan and gentle massaging soft-touch keys.
I am notoriously slack at closing Magpie (my laptop) and Chicken is notoriously good at taking full advantage of this fact and getting in some one-on-one Magpie time. There have been far too many times I have sat and stared blankly, completely flummoxed at what could possibly be wrong with Magpie (aside from the fact that she is running Vista, but we don’t say that out loud very often). I suspect Chicken might be sitting quietly chortling behind a svelte brown paw while I frantically toggle screens and hit buttons whilst steadily building up to a panic.
So it’s for those special times, when she pulls all the stops out, that this blog has been created. This is Chicken’s little platform to the outside world. Wouldn’t granny be so proud?
Chicken striking a pose
Finally!
My slaves have understood their task presented and created for me this platform of utter joy. It is from here I can share my genius with the world!
It’s been a long, cold one with frequent hints of frost settling on whiskers, chill-blained toes and other nefarious plots to get a fire built, or at the very least, the heater turned on. So it is with eager anticipation that Chicken has welcomed summer.
