Mali and Malta are sisters. They have distinct personalities. Malta is the trouble maker – the leader – the one that initiates everything. She is also very sneaky about it so she doesn’t often get caught. Mali is generally much more laid-back. She has two favourite activities – eating and sleeping. That is obvious when you look at her.
Mali is also obsessive. When she does get started in an activity (that was initiated by Malta) she goes all out and nothing can dissuade her. Take ‘eating’ for instance. The cats have their own bowls in separate areas – so Malta gets some food. I feed Malta downstairs first and while she is eating I get Mali to follow me upstairs to her dish. Sometimes I feed her one piece of food at a time so she doesn’t swallow mouthfuls without chewing. When the food is gone she licks the entire surface of the bowl just to make sure it is empty. Then she runs downstairs and licks Malta’s empty bowl before running back upstairs to lick her bowl again – and so it continues. It is her exercise program and it lasts until she decides to go to sleep.
Like most sisters, sometimes they get along and sometimes they don’t. I bought them a large cat bed so they could sleep together when they want to;
They also have another smaller foam bed with a roof that they like to use sometimes too but mostly for playing. Last week Mali dove into it during a play session and her weight caused the bed to slide across the upstairs hallway and then tumble down the stairs. The thunderous noise attracted a great deal of attention and she was very embarrassed.
So, back to last night when Mali couldn’t sleep; I fed her at bedtime as usual but then she stayed up. I kept hearing noises that I couldn’t identify so I got up to see what it was. I found Mali at the bottom of the stairs with a bag of bagels – full of teeth marks and holes. Malta was probably there too but she hides. Mali just sits there, staring at me.
I cleaned up the mess and tried to go back to bed. Mali came too, but only so she could complain to me because she couldn’t find her bagels. I finally fell asleep but only briefly. I awoke due to the fact I had trouble breathing because Mali was sitting on my chest. I opened my eyes and looked into two huge pools of blackness as she stared back at me telling me that she couldn’t sleep.
I pushed her off and tried to ignore her incessant efforts to get my attention but now I couldn’t sleep either. What if she was trying to tell me something important? Maybe there was some kind of an emergency? I got up and checked the whole house – Mali was thrilled to have some company.
I tried to get some sleep but the antics continued. There was the scary, snake-like cord on the floor and the strange pile of clothes in the corner. So many things she’s apparently never noticed before.
I’m tired. It’s Monday morning and I have cats – but they’re sleeping now.
No comments:
Post a Comment