Our car Leon has always been rather reclusive, so much so that Graham's friend Ronen was on record doubting his actual existence. He spend most of his time in the back of the house, initially camping out in the room of Natalie, the first human he let pet him consistently through the day. Once Natalie left, he spent a lot of time with Graham and would increasingly let me come in and pet him if I was very careful to walk softly and not move in a jerky or abrupt way that he might perceive as a threat. Indeed his general aversion to people walking with heavy steps led Mary to speculate that when he was a very small kitten, before he made it to the Goat House Refuge, where we got him, he might have lived under a porch. Honestly I think that is Mary over-extrapolating from a course on southern literature she read back in college, when she was momentarily entranced by Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor and the like.
As time went on Leon appeared more and more often just before bedtime and basically threw himself at Mary as she sat in her chair, forcing her to pet him. So clearly he needed attention.
Now that we are empty nesters, he has reached the conclusion that if I am going to be one of the only two humans around the house consistently, I will have to do as a source of affection and petting. In recent months, he has even taken to coming and sitting next to me on the couch in the living room or on occasion, the couch in the rec room. Today for maybe the first time ever he came and sat next to me on the couch in the morning, while I was reading the Bible. Perhaps it is my seeming embrace of the Word of God which has opened his little feline heart. In any case, it's all good. He is exceptionally soft.
1 comment:
Your family seems to have a very unique relationship to your car.
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