Midnight's Monkey

Midnight is a black cat, as you know, and black is one of my favorite colors for decor.  We quickly learned that a very small kitten that blends in so completely with his surroundings can be a bit hazardous for us and the little kitty.  One of my first projects with our new little baby was to make the house safer for everyone by adding some color to the surroundings.  I bought a lot of red rugs and throws to place in favorite spots so we could see him.  Naturally, he seemed to prefer, and still does, the black surroundings, so he would just move to new areas when the ones he had been occupying became unsuitable. It was a circular thing, I would cover a spot, he would move, I would cover the next spot and he would move again.  Eventually my house was a sea of red with a little black and a good deal of white. (which he ignored completely)  Once I had most surfaces covered in some way he would simply dig his way past the offending item to the nice, comfortable black and that is where I would find him.  Oh well, at least there was the lump created by his moving the throw or whatever and we knew where he was.

He was also fond of my husbands black socks right out of the laundry and newly balled up.  He would dig them out and carry them around with him, dragging them between his legs.  At first the pairs of socks were nearly as big as he was, but this did not last long. He was growing very quickly.  One day I heard my son laughing and looked up to see Midnight coming from the hallway with something quite different in his mouth.  He had a small stuffed toy monkey instead of the socks.  Of course, there were differences in the proportions of this object and the carry method was not nearly as effective.  Midnight's front legs were not nearly long enough for this job, but that fact only slowed him down a little.  He was walking with the monkey between his front legs and this meant that only one of his legs at a time could reach the ground.  He solved this problem by sliding his body side to side in order to put the appropriate leg to the ground so he could walk on it.  Of course this slowed him down a bit, but he was determined. He managed to slip and slide his way to the couch and drag the monkey up with him.  He then dug his way down to the black surface and he and the monkey settled in for a much needed nap.  The trip down the hall from the bedroom to the stairs, then down the stairs and a long hallway to the family room with that monkey had worn him out!

This fascination with that little toy monkey continued on for a very long time and he struggled daily to move it around with him.  About a week later I could hear him coming down the hallway from the stairs again and looked up to see hm emerge, carrying his monkey, but this time he had tipped his head so the monkey was not dragging the floor but was up in the air, allowing him to walk freely.  Of course this limited his field of vision but that did not seem to bother Midnight at all.  He would just turn his head to see around the monkey's body and go. 

He and our son were developing quite a close relationship and Midnight was spending his evenings sleeping in the Boy's room.  I decided to get him a proper bed instead of the makeshift pile of blankets we had made for him so I went to PetSmart and found a really cute zebra striped one.  I brought it home and sat it down in the living room floor for a very curious cat to investigate.  This was where I learned just how opinionated Midnight really is.  At this point he was about 4 months old and it was time for school to start, so I had wanted a comfort place for him for the time of day when the Boy was gone.

Midnight immediately got inside the bed to investigate. He sniffed and sniffed.  He walked in circles and did the little cat dance on the floor of the bed.  He poked and prodded, pushed and pulled, then did the circle thing again.  Just when I thought all was well and he liked the bed, he turned around, looked straight at me, then squatted and peed all over the bed!  He then jumped out of it, kicking it with his hind legs and doing his little Midnight harrumph that he does, he walked off never to look back.  So much for the store bought bed.

To this day Midnight sleeps in the bed with one of us or in his drawer I made for him that is lined with old t-shirts that we have worn.  It is his favorite place in the house.