My cat inky and I are totally getting into a new routine now that Monster passed. She'll

[applegrove]

come up to me wherever I am and purr and purr. And I try not to kiss her on the forehead (that was my thing with monster) but she is getting used to it when I do. She'll spent the first part of the night on my bed then its off to the livingroom and high on furniture (to watch her domain I think) for her. I've never had such a relationship transition with a pet. I think she was low man on the totem pole when Monster was around and now she's spreading her wings at 7. Nice to have a little kitty renaissance going on here.

Has your relationship with your pets ever gone through some growth spurts?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. My cats' routines change based on logic or rules known only to them.

For awhile Milo would sleep only in his cat bed during the day; then he changed to the piano bench. I left the vacuum cleaner out in the living room, with the hose coiled on the floor in a loop. Jeoffry decided that he would sleep in that loop; it became his "bed" even though there was nothing to sleep on. I moved the vacuum a little bit which changed the shape of the loop in the hose and now he won't sleep there. Right now he's sleeping on a coffee table near a window.

As far as our personal relationships go, that is also a mystery to me. These haven't changed abruptly, but they develop quirks. Pixie won't sit on my lap, but she has taken to sleeping at the foot of the bed. Milo used to sleep on the bed but lately he's decided to sleep on the floor in the hall. All of them are proximity cats - they need to be in the room I'm in, although not necessarily on me. Usually Jeoffry sleeps on the ottoman and leans on my feet, but today Milo has that spot. Pixie likes the top shelf of the cat tree. I think the Venn diagram of my universe vs. theirs has only a small overlap. They obviously like me and want me to be one part of their world, but the rest of their universe is an enigma.

[Tom_Foolery]

2. My first dog was named Inky...

He'd be 46 years old.

[applegrove]

3. I needed to rename my cat and someone on the DU suggested Inky or Ink Blot. I liked it. She seems

to sort of be responding to it.