One of the fun things about having animals sleeping in bed with you is that they’re all warm and snuggly. Okay, so they get pet hair all over you. That’s a small price to pay for all the love and comfort they give through the night. Animals have bad nights too, though, and last night was one for Hamilton. This may have started because he was the last one to get on the bed. He always waits until I lie down so he can position himself as close to me as possible. That becomes difficult, though, when by the time I go to bed there is Belvedere and seven cats already there.
There are some physics to getting into a crowded bed. Understand first of all that the hound isn’t moving for anyone or anything. That’s roughly 58 pounds of dead weight, and he likes having his head on a pillow. The cats will move, but they do so in relationship to who else is on the bed. When Kat’s not here, Queen Bit tends to be on the bed and no one wants to piss her off. Like Belvedere, she doesn’t like to move. Unlike Belvedere, if you get close you’re getting the claws. So, I try to go back-to-back with B and make sure my legs are out of range of Bit. Everyone else adjusts.
When Hamilton adds his 70-something pounds to the bed, though, always after the lights are off, it’s rather like a tornado hitting in the middle of the night. He doesn’t seem to care where anyone else is, he just jumps onto the bed and starts turning in circles until he’s cleared out a space large enough for his body. Everything and everyone else goes flying. Sometimes the cats return, and sometimes they don’t. Last night, they all came right back and Ham was stuck at the foot of the bed because B, Bit, and Jack-Jack had the positions closest to me.
Ham was restless. He flipped and flopped during the night, causing cats to have to readjust every time he did. He really wanted to get up closer to me, but Bit would hiss and swing her claws at him every time he tried. Finally, he hopped down, opened the bedroom door (it’s rarely shut tight), and went to the living room. He was feeling rejected and he likes to sit in my recliner to pout. But G is in the middle of re-arranging the living room (one of those tasks that raises more questions than it answers) and my recliner is full of framed pictures. He managed to get up on the arm of the couch (a fact I know from how everything was scattered this morning) and look out the living room window. He woofed at something, pouted with his snout on the back of the couch for a while, then came back to the room.
By now, it’s almost 4:00. Jack-jack hops up in hopes that there’s still a snack in the food bowl (there wasn’t). For those just joining, Jack is our mane coone mix. He weighs just under 20 pounds. He doesn’t want to jump to the floor until he’s at the foot of the bed, and he’s also smart enough to know not to get within swatting reach of Bit. So, he trots his furry self right down the length of my body, disturbing Pinball and Gabby who were both lying on my legs.
Hamilton sees Jack’s absence as a possible opening for getting back on the bed. He gives it a try only to be swatted down by Bit because he barely missed her face as he jumped, which would scare the crap out of any cat. I tried to get him to come up from the foot of the bed, which would have been much safer, but he was afraid there were still cats there. He whines for a few minutes, then finally decides to spend the rest of the night on the floor, which is, for him, relative to being sentenced to purgatory.
When Jack came back around to wake me at 6:30 (because there still wasn’t any food in the bowl, Dad), Ham took advantage of all the cats rushing to get their breakfast and jumped up on the bed, curled up next to Belvedere, and slept for all of ten minutes before B decided that they needed to go outside. I had just made a cup of coffee. I pulled on my jeans and off we went.
Are we sure it’s June? Stepping outside wearing nothing but jeans and a t-shirt (which isn’t remotely as sexy as it sounds) would normally be a pleasant coolness at the start of the day. Instead, it was 58 degrees with a fair breeze. It felt more like April out there. I drank my coffee, which was cooling rapidly, as the dogs did the stuff that dogs do. By the time I reached the bottom of the cup, the dogs were staring off toward the North as if waiting for something exciting to pop out of the Sunday morning quietness. Nothing did. We went back inside. I fed the dogs, and now we’re all caught up.
This is how my life is now. Hamilton, Jack-jack, and Bit are back on the bed now. Belvedere is curled up in his favorite padded corner, which he arranged himself to his liking. The twins are looking for something to destroy. Pinball is curled up in Kat’s chair. Gabby is looking out the living room window. I’m not sure where the hell Fred Fredburger is, but he’ll be back in here shortly. Fat Guy and Lyndy are snuggled up with G.
Me? I’m just sitting here worrying about how I’m going to get to my doctor’s appointment in the morning if my check doesn’t show up. It’s supposed to be here by the 10th, even without the advance pay for which I’m allegedly signed up. As long as it hits on time, I can take an Uber, which is exactly what I’d planned. However, what do I do if it doesn’t? According to the Social Security office, it can technically hit anywhere between the 10th and 15th and still be considered “on time.” Just because it’s been there by the 10th in previous months does not guarantee that it will be there in the morning. What do I do?
My appointment is at 9:00 AM at Community Cancer Center North. Normally, I would say that I’d be done by 10:30, but this isn’t an oncology appointment. Tomorrow’s visit is with the endocrinologist to see if my glucose is heading back to where it should be. I’m thinking, based on this week’s numbers, that we should be okay and can continue with the current medicine regimen. In that case, I’m done by 9:30. If the doctor sees something different, though, then I go across the street to the hospital and they teach me how to give myself insulin. No telling how long that might take. I really need a solution that is flexible to the situation. I don’t suppose there’s anyone willing to be my last-minute backup.
Speaking of glucose, it’s time to check mine and then get busy with some other topics that are bugging me this morning. You never know what is coming up next.