The cat, Princess Pretty Paws*, has been sleeping with me quite regularly lately.

She hasn’t always done so. At times I never saw her at night because she tended to hang out in the crawl space upstairs and only come out in the morning for breakfast. So, a few nights ago she and I had a talk and she told me that she was taking over half of the bed, the lower half. Well, I’m not averse to sharing my sleeping space with a cat but it would have been better, I think, if she had chosen to sleep on the right or left side of the bed. I like the left side so I would have gladly given over the right side. But, no, she was adamant that she would take the lower half of the bed. Fine. It’s a big bed, so why not? She wasn’t asking for exclusive use of the lower half, but predominant use. 

The first night of this new arrangement was okay. We got along quite nicely. I could stretch my legs all the way to the bottom of the bed, and she didn’t complain about that. She did sidle up to my legs though and slept pushed right up against them. This was fine because I still had lots of room to move my legs into a better position. 

The second night, a couple of nights ago now, she was determined to lay claim to the lower half of the bed. If I stretched my legs down to the bottom of the bed, she immediately and aggressively pushed up against them. If I moved, she moved. Soon, I found myself on the outer edge of the left side of the bed, she in possession of the whole queen size bed except for a small sliver of it on the left edge. 

Look at this picture of her. She doesn’t look particularly nasty, does she? She’s quite sweet sometimes. She’s not a cuddler at all but she doesn’t mind being carried around if she’s in a good mood. However, she is prone to biting and clawing if she doesn’t feel things are going her way, or just to assert her dominance. 

She doesn’t get along with the dog (Tilly), but they haven’t really tried very hard. Tilly tends to want to chase Princess and that doesn’t go over very well with the Princess nor with me. I don’t know what Tilly would do if she caught Princess and I don’t want to find out either. It’s obvious that Tilly is afraid of Princess. 

Cats are generally weird and she’s a good representative of her species on this count. 
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*Given this name by my granddaughter, Ailey Vines.