This trip around Britain interrupted by a post about our cat

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Valencia is our beautiful torbie (tortoise shell with tabby markings) rescue cat. We adopted her when she was about eight weeks old. She'll be 13 near the end of April. Valencia is very much the manipulative diva. For instance, she learned quite some time ago that if she rolled around on the floor, we would stop whatever we were doing and pet her on her tummy because she was so darned cute. Today, she took that manipulation to new levels.

Steve has been home since Friday. He had today off for President's Day and he took Friday off to make it a four day weekend. As a result, he and I have been off doing various things and Valencia has not had my undivided attention from 6:30 a.m. until Steve gets home some time after 5:30 p.m. That makes her a bit more needy, so she's a bit more vocal and a bit more demanding.

Today, after Steve and I had been out running errands for a few hours this morning, she put a new ploy into action. We walked into the room and she threw herself onto the floor near the end of the couch. Steve was closer, so he acknowledged how cute she was being and went over to pet her. As he reached down to her, she jumped up and moved into the dining room. As soon as Steve acknowledged her, she threw herself onto the floor again. So Steve, being the properly trained cat guardian, walked over and bent down to pet her a second time. Again she jumped up. I realized what she was up to. Sure enough, she walked into the kitchen and rolled around again. She was leading Steve straight to the cabinet where her wet food and treats are stored.

Shrewd, Valencia, very shrewd.

And yes, she got some wet food. Like I said, we're well trained cat guardians.


Besides, how can you resist this?

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