random thoughts – Day 1,586 – (Sunday) – lying in wait

Kiki on top.

It didn’t take long after my comment about Kiki no longer camping out at the top of the stairs and suddenly, it was her new favorite spot (again). She was back up there, snugged up against the spare room door that sticks and has to be hip checked to open it. Up there, she’s not visible from the bottom of the staircase and I have to climb at least halfway up to spot her.

I imagine her taking great delight over the past couple days in hearing me checking all of her usual first floor spaces and saying “Where’s my Kiki?” Not under the recently preferred table, behind the couch, in the recently ignored hidey bed, or behind the chair. The top of the stairs are again the first place to be checked. For now, anyway.

Today, it went even one step beyond slinking up there during the day. When I opened the bedroom door this morning, she was standing right outside it, looking all innocent and cute, instead of the usual position at the bottom of the stairs or under the dining room table looking all cute.

This is exactly how she outwitted me the last time. One morning, she was outside the bedroom door and when I opened it to greet the day (or more accurately, stumble to the kitchen to make coffee), she slipped into the bedroom, went directly under the bed, and slipped into her box spring palace. She stayed there most of that day, and when she finally came downstairs, I ran up to close the door.

When I left the house at noon to attend my youngest niece’s birthday lunch, Kiki was sitting pretty at the top of the stairs. There was lunch and cake, and conversation including how to keep a cat out of a box spring and the possibility of replacing it with a newer two-piece box spring due to the impossibility of getting a platform bed up the 1930 staircase.

There was a facetime visit with the niece trying to keep cool in hella-hot Las Vegas. It was fun. And for the first time in several gatherings, we remembered to take a family photo. On the way out of town, I got some gas for the palatable price of $2.97. Gotta love the savings of 25 to 30 cents a gallon compared to the Lowell prices.

Back at home, Kiki was still at the top of the stairs. Or maybe she was there again, and had gone on walkabout during my absence. She allowed me to stretch my arm to reach her and stroke her sweet little face and rub her back and tell her how great she is. It was lovely. It's always lovely.

The Sunday trash and litter box chores had been handled before I went to the party, so I was able to relax. This mostly involved trying to decide whether or not to sauté some zucchini and squash fresh from a friend’s garden. After a couple rounds of debate, supper ended up being salad in a pita pocket. The trash bin with the barely a bag of trash was rolled to the curb, but not the recycle bin because it’s still practically empty. 

Four hours after my return, Kiki was still upstairs, probably plotting and scheming and lying in wait for her next attempt to reclaim her castle. I’m downstairs waiting for the proverbial "other shoe to drop" and feeling that I have to pay attention.