Cats and Company

My eighteen-year-old cat, Wywy, has developed strange new habits. I know cats always pick one spot and return to it for a time, maybe months, before they move on to another. Wywy used to sleep on my feet on the bed, but no more--I miss the warmth. Wywy (we have gender confusion here--for the first almost year we thought it was female but now know that he's a male, still we can't stop calling the cat "her"--so bear with me). She has decided the absolute best place in the world to be is my desk--when I work on the keyboard she lays her paws on my arm, then gradually moves onto the keyboard, where she sometimes causes all kinds of havoic. Reading the newspaper is impossible--she lies in the middle of it. And she licks my arm and hand and occasionally takes a nip, which I prefer to assume is a love bite. Occasionally it's a bit stronger, though she never breaks the skin, but I swat her when she does that. When I push her away with determination, she cleans herself--on the desk where I eat a lot of my meals. Not an appetizing thought. I have learned to lock her out at breakfast, when I eat cottage cheese, and lunch, when I often eat tuna salad. She stalks both.
Because of her age, I decided that feeding her on the top of the bathroom drawers was impractical. I started doing that to keep Scooby, the dog, from her food. She used to jump up on the seat inbetween the sets of drawers and then up to the counter where I fed her. Lately she just jumps up on the seat and stares at me, waiting for me to boost her all the way up. So I started putting her food on the floor--figuring I could keep the dog away from it because he has set habits that don't include the bathroom. Well, I put fresh food in the dish on the floor, and she jumps up on the seat and looks at me. I have to pick her up and physically put her down by it. She will actually walk by a dish of fresh cat food to jump on the seat. As I told someone, I don't think she's the brightest star in the sky.
My friend Elizabeth told me they used to have a small set of stairs that they put up by the couch (when they were still letting their dogs on the couch) so the miniature dachsund could climb them to get up. One day she was vacuuming and put the stairs against the wall. The dog climbed them and then looked severely puzzled, like "Where is the couch?"
Company for dinner tonight. I'm on a kick of comfort food, partly due to budget and partly due to the cold weather. So we had meat loaf (I have the best recipe ever!), brussell sprouts cooked with bacon grease (good heavens!), chicken broth, and brown sugar, then sprinkled with crumbled crisp bacon and a cheese-rice casserole.
My friend Barbara gave me this recipe. She and I went to high school together in Chicago, but she has lived in Jackson MS forever. This was from her stepmother, and she calls it Luella's Rice. You mix 1 cup Minute Rice (absolutely the only time I use the stuff), one can cream of celery soup, one cup sour cream, one cup grated cheddar, and one can green chilis. Bake it for 30 minutes at 350. Delicious, not good for you, but I did use Healthy Choice soup and low fat sour cream.
Lovely lively company tonight--my neighbor Sue and my friends Gayland and Katie. Gayland had a harem, but he didn't seem to mind the talk about kids and school and all that. Katie's grandchildren and Sue's youngest child go to the school across the street from our house, and Katie uses my driveway to pick up her grandsons. We all interrupted each other, laughed a lot, and had a jolly time. It was nice to sip wine in front of the fire. I'm a happy camper tonight--and I haven't written a word. Back to that tomorrow.