an extended meditation on presence (we also have chickens)
I run the library in a Leader in Me (LIM) high school. For the uninitiated, Leader in Me is a program based on Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." Students get exposed to the 7 habits throughout the year, practice them, and see staff put them into action.
This means all of us get training on the "seven habits" as well. Which means that, among the staff, they've turned into memes. Also they haunt my dreams. And slip out of my mouth at the most inopportune times. Like today, when the cat wanted pets, so she jumped into my lap while I was reading. I said before I thought: "you want pets and I'm a lap. You're thinking win-win."
Anyway, here are the seven habits of highly effective cats.
Want what the humans are eating? Get up there on the table. Don't wait to be invited. Be proactive.
Always lick your butt thoroughly, especially in front of guests.
The human needs to feed you RIGHT MEOW. No, not after she gets out of bed. No, not after she walks to the kitchen and opens the can. RIGHT. MEOW.
You need pets. The human needs to be covered in luxurious cat fluff. Everyone gets what they need when you butt into the human's lap.
The human cannot grasp the urgency of your situation until you trip her in the middle of the hallway. Understand your human's limitations, knock her to the ground, THEN scream in her face.
Teamwork makes the canned food fall into the bowl faster. Yell at the human in stereo.
And your claws.
Preferably at three a.m. when the human has to go to work in four hours.
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