Tainted love

So I can't tell if Logan (the temporary cat) really really likes me, or if he just likes being a pest. There are two things he really likes: closets, and me. So it's a pretty safe bet that at any given time he's either in a closet, or following me around (with the occasional break for food or water). Oh, he tries to play it cool (he's a cat. He has to!). He leaves a little time lag between when I go somewhere and him following. Lets say I go to the bathroom. By the time I'm washing my hands, he's scratching the door to be let in.

This can get a little annoying at night. I've never been able to sleep with a cat in the room. Its because I always wonder where it is, what its doing. And all that wondering effectively prevents sleep. So I tend to shut my door, to keep the cat out. Doesn't work with Logan. He can't open a shut door, but he makes sure that you know he wants to come in. He meows. He paws on the door. He claws the carpet (you should see it! It's starting to look a little abused!). In short, he wakes you up, and won't go away so you can go back to sleep. I've tried throwing things at the door. Getting up, carrying him to a different part of the house and leaving him there, shoving him so he'll think I'm a meanie-pants and not want to get into my room... Nothing works. Oh sure, he's fickle (again, he's a cat), so he'll eventually lose interest. But not until after the damage is done.

So I've decided to try sleeping with my door open. It hasn't been too bad. I guess grad school just drains me so much I can fall asleep even with a cat present. He's a big cat though. 17.5 pounds. That's over twice as much as Mitzi, my paragon of catliness, weighs. So it's a battle trying to get snuggled into my covers just right when he's sitting on top of them.

He also has really sharp claws. And he likes to stretch and flex his toes when I'm petting him. This is fine if I'm wearing a thick sweatshirt, but when his paw's on my bare neck, yowee! He's very fond of getting in the way, as I mentioned before. I think maybe he just likes contact. So sometimes I'm actually able to convince him to not sit on my reading, or drape himself between my reading and I. In these cases, he puts his paws around my arm and rests his head on my shoulder. It's super cute! He'll also use me as a pillow at night. He likes to rest his head on the back of my knee.

So yeah, Logan's great. He makes me really want to get a kitten of my own. He also makes me feel like a big, grouchy person though. Here he just wants to love me and to snuggle with me, and I'm shoving him away and telling him no. I guess he'll never understand what reading is, and why I'd rather endlessly look at a piece of paper than focus on him. I'm not sure if I understand it either.... Oh well.