My Computer Has Ears

...at least, it looks like it does. Cat's ears. This is because Tyrone, my feline life partner of the past 8 years, likes to watch me use the computer. Typically, after trying several times to walk across the keyboard and getting picked off the desk and set on the floor, he takes up a perch on top of the CPU, which lies flat on the desk, and behind the flat-screen monitor that sits on top of the CPU. So, more and more often, I've been noticing the shape of cat ears sticking up from behind the monitor. It's a sight to make me laugh.

Tyrone likes being the focus of my attention. But after being denied four or five times in a row, he tends to settle for just keeping me company. When I'm in bed, he will often push his nose into my face and "ask" to be let under the covers, only to come right out again, over and over until I throw him off the bed. And then he'll jump back on and "ask" under the covers again, and get thrown off the bed again, and jump back on, etc. After several reps of this exercise, he will frequently curl up next to my leg, on top of the covers, and lie there very contended-like for a long time.

He has lived with a piano as long as we've been together, but until recently he hasn't done much practicing on the instrument. Lately, Tyrone has started playing duets with me. I'll be playing the piano and he'll jump up and walk across the keyboard, stepping over and between my hands, and maybe turn around and walk back the other way. [EDIT: Actually he has only done this a few times. More often, he walks to and fro in front of my sheet music, forcing me to "vamp until ready."] Luckily for him, this makes me laugh. I just keep playing regardless, and after he tries two or three times to drag my attention away from the piano, he may just join me on the bench and watch my performance with wide, interested eyes.

Tyrone's favorite places to be petted are around his muzzle and all the way down his tail. Sometimes he encourages me so firmly to pet the top and sides of his muzzle that I worry about getting my fingers stuck up his nose. I have never known a cat who was so keen on having his tail touched. I'm glad, though. It's a lovely tail, and it feels very fine in the hand. I treat it with respect because I know that this cat's tolerance of being petted there is a rare and precious thing, an artifact of his trust in me.