A seething mass of turgid drama.

Miss Beatrice had an early morning extended yowl session. Once we'd reassured her that we were in the bedroom, she jumped up and demanded pets. She then settled down against my hip and slept there for an hour! We're all in favor of that kind of threesome.

The last few days Miss Beatrice has been hopping up onto the bed before my alarm - anywhere from a couple minutes before to a couple hours. She will flop next to me and demand pets. This is fine when it's 10 minutes before, but less so when it's 3 AM...

This morning she did it three times. The first time I was on my side spooning the wife. Bea hopped up and placed her paw on my hip to let me know I needed to roll over so I could pay attention to her properly.

Miss Beatrice hopped up onto the bed around 2:30 AM. I obligingly rolled on my back, and she promptly settled in between my knees where she stayed for a couple hours. That's the second night in a row, so we'll see if tonight Establishes Tradition, or if Bea decides to do something different.

She hasn't wanted blanket fort basically since she bonded herself to the wife. So I will take any snuggles I can get.

This last weekend we attended the WCCS, which was back after a pandemic break. It usually rotates up and down the coast. It was less than an hour from us in a Girl Scout camp, making it even more convenient.
( Semi-random notes from the event )

Miss Beatrice told us loudly how much she missed us, and I suspect she will be glued to the wife's lap for the next couple days. She also spent some of the night on our bed, which isn't that common for her.

Miss Bea has discovered a new, exciting game: after she has gobbled 1/2 to 2/3 of her meal, she can sometimes get us to pick up individual pieces of her freeze-dried rabbit and toss them down the hall. Beatrice can then chase, catch, and devour her prey while making excited noises. And return for more.

It's adorable, but also good exercise for her. And it reinforces the hunting behaviors that vets say we should encourage in indoor cats so they don't sleep all the time.

Miss Beatrice had her annual vet checkup yesterday. It was good from the vet's perspective in that she seems to be a perfectly healthy 2-year-old. Bea, not the vet. Perhaps slightly ample - she has gained a pound since last year and is now at 11 pounds, so we'll cut her meals by another gram and see how that goes. Also slight gingivitis so we'll test some dental chews. Hopefully Bea actually chews them rather than gulping them down (or snubbing entirely).

From Bea's perspective, Worst. Day. Ever. We had cancelled the cleaners' visit so she wouldn't be stressed out beforehand, which was a good call. She was severely unhappy about being among strangers - outside her house! She yowled the whole way there and once at the vet, her heart was racing from the stress. We got an exam room early to make it a bit easier on Bea, but she still spent the time either nose-deep in the wife's armpit or in the back of her carrier.

She seems to be continuing to do well as an only cat. She's still skittish/scared of most things that aren't us and that probably will never change, alas. We've been trying to schedule her annual checkup and shots but the SPCA is super-booked. (We're going there because it's close, and because all the local vets are full up and won't take new clients.)

This morning Miss Bea jumped onto the bed around 4:30 AM and demanded pets. I gave her a full rubdown and she drooled all over herself (and my hand). She seemed happy about it though.

Bea has linked the oven hood fan going on to the (occasional) smoke alarm, which understandably panics her - so she hides when I turn on the fan just in case. Sigh. I am using the fan to try to avoid the smoke alarm, cat.

Miss Beatrice had a bad day yesterday. First the cleaners, who came into the house, and to make matters worse, ran a vacuum cleaner. Then after I got home, she got scared by something-or-other and bolted - but got her leg tangled in a cord plugged into the wall, so it wrapped around her leg and she couldn't escape. She was yowling and hissing, with her tail in full bottle-brush mode. We converged on Bea and the wife picked her up and held her, while I untangled the cord. Then the wife held her and we both petted her gently until she relaxed. (We figured that was less traumatic than letting her bolt under the bed to hide.)

No lasting harm done, but sheesh.

We bought an auto-feeder for Miss Bea. We've been rationing her food since she exited kittenhood (the vet's term was she was a bit "ample" with free-feeding) and now she gets 23 g of dried rabbit twice a day. Bea devours it within a few minutes, although the first bite is almost always her flipping a chunk out of the bowl and munching it a couple feet away.

Because we give her freeze-dried food rather than kibble, we can't use the vertical dispensers. So we went with a five-bowl setup that we program to rotate twice a day. It's slightly too deep for her size but she's made it work. And she's now starting to cue off the slight sound of the motor running when it rotates as food time.

This will make it easier for going away; she won't be able to eat a weekend's worth of food all on Friday afternoon anymore. I expect she'll still complain about us being gone, of course.

I dreamt that we were at a 12th Night-like SCA event at a hotel. We had brought Miss Beatrice and she had gotten loose. We were frantically running around the hotel trying to find her.

So when Miss Bea jumped up onto the bed and woke me from the dream, she got extra pets.