Well, let’s just say that orange things that dress up in fur like a C-A-T don’t have a lot of patience — usually. But, today I am thankful for Oliver’s patience with me and for the smile he brought to my face late, late last night.
Ollie and I have been on very different schedules lately. It has been warmer outside during the days and perhaps the warm weather has given the old boy a chance to do some serious hunting — or whatever it is that tom cats do when the weather is nice. He hasn’t been around much during the past few days.
That’s an assumption on my part. I haven’t had the time to wait for his appearances. As most of you know I have been a little pre-occupied with what is going on in Haiti. So, I have been on the phone a lot and running around town doing what I could to help get medications ready to be shipped off to the island. My schedule and Ollie’s haven’t been in sync.
Yesterday I attended a meeting that took a little longer than I had anticipated, so I wasn’t home when Ollie ordinarily appears for his mid-afternoon snack. In other words, I had not seen the cat for a couple of days although I could tell he had stopped by to snack.
At night I usually put his food bowl on top of the grill so the dog that has decided to put our house on his nightly rounds wouldn’t eat it all. Well, last night I was so tired that I decided to get into bed around 8:00. Now, I had no intention of going to sleep. I thought I would catch a short nap but not go to sleep sleep — you know the deep kind that lasts all night.
I woke up at 12:30 a.m. totally confused. I had slept through the evening. I checked the clock to see that it was after midnight. I thought about Ollie. I had left his food on the breezeway floor next to the water bowl. I walked downstairs to the back door and when I opened it Oliver was sitting like a statue right beside the back door staring at me. He was so close that when I flipped on the light and saw him I was startled.
I swear to you I think I saw disgust on his face. He didn’t dart even though I was closer than is usually comfortable for him. He finally decided move by jumping up onto the grill. I could see that the bowl on the floor was totally empty — totally. I had slept through the terrier visit.
Ollie sat on the grill and watched me fill his bowl. Once I put it in front of him, he smiled and started to eat.
There is no way for me to know how long the little fur ball had been waiting, sitting and staring at the door. But, I was particularly happy to see him and he seemed happy to see me — or the bag of Friskies. With so much loss in the world today it was good to see the little fellow showing patience by waiting for his dinner.
I am really thankful for Oliver and his patience.
