Smudge Brings His Nap Game Into 2020
Posted on January 6, 2020 Posted by John Scalzi 20 Comments
And what a high-level nap game it is!
Also, hello, folks. Today I wrote a chapter and replied to notes on a treatment and now I’m about to go run a bit because I bought new running shoes and I have to justify spending more on them than I think I have for any other pair of shoes I ever had. 2020 is keeping me busy so far. Fortunately I have cats to hold down the napping angle of things.
Have your cats ever caught a mouse?
Pedro:
We live in a place that has agricultural fields on three sides of it and when it gets cold, the various field rodents start looking for someplace warm and full of food. This is why we have cats.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the furry little bastards. But they are definitely working cats as well as pets.
“Working cats” has to be an oxymoron. At best they’re (extremely) independent contractors.
Wrote a chapter of what, exactly??
I don’t let anyone or anything be a proxy for my nap time. Nope. Not even for shoes.
My mom’s much-missed Emily was quite the huntress. We called her the Chipmunk Murderer as we liked the chipmunks as they were cute. Nobody objected to her killing the mice in the basement, only to her leaving their dismembered bodies on the floor outside our bedrooms.
Now they have a greyhound who as it turns out can hunt herself – she caught and killed a rat a few days ago. Good girl!
Working cats are the best. We once had a cat that stole a large thawing frozen chicken off the neighbors’ picnic table. How the cat got the chicken over chain link fence remains a source of family wonderment to this very day. But then again, that cat was talented. During the course of its working lifetime it also brought us multiple dead rabbits, rats and mice too numerous to count, and a smattering of birds, but fortunately no small dogs.
The sleeping position that Smudge is occupying has me puzzled. From the angle of the photo, it looks like he’s lying on his side with his chest and stomach exposed. This means he’s curling his back when he’s doing this. Is this an example of maximum cat flexibility? Or should I worry that Smudge is going to injure himself while he’s sleeping?
There are two cats in the photo, right? I can’t work out Smudge’s sleeping position otherwise.
Read Marko Kloos recent book. Smudge gets a mention and a blurb on the thank you page. Does Smudge have an agent?
Dave
This is the “I fell asleep in the middle of a good stretch” position. Only try this if you are an accomplished contortionist or at least advanced yoga master.
My cat is a working cat. He working on my last nerve right now.
Peter: This tweet looks like it may explain things:
https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/1214283414687408131
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
I had a cat that once brought home a sausage, still warm from the frying pan. Never found out where it came from.
Well that explains why, no matter how much I need one, I can never fit a nap into my day. My cats have usurped the napping.
::“Working cats” has to be an oxymoron. At best they’re (extremely) independent contractors.::
That needs to be on a T-Shirt, bobmunck.
Just getting back to regular life, and I saw your Voter Registration post. I agree absolutely — so much so that I’m one of those (usually elderly) folk who get up before dawn every Election Day to help set up the polls so people can exercise their franchise.
My job there is to make it possible for everybody who wishes to vote to do so — during the 2008 Federal Election and the 2016 Democratic Primary*, nothing was more heartbreaking than seeing people, many eager to vote for somebody for the first time, get turned away because their name wasn’t in our pollbooks.
Don’t get register to vote and assume your name’s still in the polls, or that your registration is in the same election district you live in — check with your local Board of Elections (BoE) first. Also, check to find out what recourse you have if your name’s not in the pollbook — is there a judge sitting for the BoE to rule if you’re a registered voter or not? Does your state have Affidavit/Provisional Ballots (you can vote, but it’s not counted until the BoE confirms you are in fact a Registered Voter)? Can you vote early, and if so where? Can you vote Absentee for any reason, or is that only allowed for limited reasons (as it is in my state)?
—-
* It’s not just Republicans — in my state, the State Democratic Party “lost” Two Hundred Thousand voter registrations, mostly in districts that favored Bernie Sanders over Hillary Rodham Clinton. Since we have (very) Closed Primaries, that meant 200,000 people who should have had the right to vote — didn’t.
I had a cat who once came in through the kitchen window, looking very furtive, carrying a freshly fried chicken leg. Mine was apparently not the only kitchen window she was utilizing.
hugh57: Yes, that picture does explain things. Thanks for the unbroken cat answer.
And a most excellent nap game it is. My three still adopt variations on the Loaf position, including the Infinity Loop Without Discernible Paws Or Tail. They still get most of the bed.