Kind of proud that Badger has a specific manner of approaching me to signal that he wants me to massage out tension in his neck/shoulders
Since I capped and reduced Badger’s kibble intake he’s stayed closer to me which reflects some combination of his caloric economy (he has less energy to expend so he spends less time exposed outside as it gets colder) and politicoemotional economy (I’ve been reducing his resources so he invests more in my love & attention)
me: aw, kitty! Skritch skritch skritch
Badger: ::purrs::
me: if things go well one day I’M gonna have to calculate how much pain to let you suffer before having you killed!
On the vet’s recommendation, stepping Badger down off dry and switching to wet only. He normally drifts in to nosh a bit and then go back out through the day so it’s really a change to his routine not just his satiation
He’s meowing and beseeching more but it’s not that bad, in fact I feel awkward how much a hungry and vulnerable Badger is a cuddly Badger
Took Badger for his yearly checkup today, a few times ago he was a real demon to get in the carrier so they gave me a bunch of gabapentin to prep him with.
It’s weird, in a way it’s like the opposite of him being sedated, like he’s always spent time being slow and curled up and chill, just like this he’s chill even when he’s active
Continue to be close to my cat Badger, just I’m so used to him I can usually class his weird behavior in some sort of meta-pattern at least so I don’t note and post about him so much
Getting a cat that’ll present himself for my consideration 4-6 times a day was a good call
Badger has started to do this “oh let’s go to the bedroom floor pillow for our post-midnight skritchies… oh fooled you bye!” as a parallel to his “it’s 830 AM, come into the front room and DO THE THING” behavior
Realizing that how many prey animals Badger brings home is basically a function of how long I’ve let the backyard grass grow.
Badger seems to have realized when he jumps in the window and yowls at me to come into the kitchen to watch and pet him while he eats I’ll not immediately respond and he’ll stand at the threshold for a while meowing and grumbling, but if he comes in to get pet and skritched I’ll usually prioritize him, so now he’s starting to come in and purr and get pet for a while and then circles back to the door to lead me to the kitchen
From his perspective I’m sure he’s tricking me but from mine I’m finally training him to seek attention by being cute not obnoxious
Badger has invented a New Thing I’m supposed to be doing with him when he meows but fuck if I know what it is
there is a specific way Badger lines up in a specific location when I’m sitting on the couch in a specific position
such that I will massage his tense neck & shoulderblades
I like it but he’s starting to put specific kinks and requirements into it that make me think he’s trying to turn it into another one of his specific rituals
Badger probably thinks all humans have a high-marked language of discursive mumbles and a common-use language based on saying “cat” with different tones
If Badger just absolutely refuses to stop meowing no matter how long I put him off I know the thing he wants is for me to open the door and let him out, which is like the one thing (he sometimes comes in through the window in like 3 mins) he meows for that he can do on his own
Fumbling his food bowl; elbowing him when I turned around; kicking out to get up from the bed I didn’t realize he was in, I have been accidentally housing Badger in the face this week, I hope he doesn’t take it personally
When I kinda drift awake in bed one of the things Badger does to get me up and going out to the kitchen to feed him is jump up on the bed and start kneading my belly
He doesn’t seem to know the reason that really worked as a kitten was he hadn’t yet learned to fully retract his claws as he did it
