Restless Roger

Roger, the cat, is restless.

I’m not sure if he is confounded by the unusually warm early December weather or if he knows winter is coming. I don’t know if he’s unnerved by the fact that our Christmas tree blocks one of his favorite spot for ingress and egress – through the sliding glass door via the screened in back porch – or if it is that he enjoyed ‘hiding’ under the tree until we started filling up the hiding space with those multicolored slick boxes.

Since Christmas decorations went up and the weather became warmer, I have noticed he is more and more restless.

Frequently, he ‘circles’ the main level of our house – moving from room to room (almost like he is walking a lap around the track). He often meows as he circles - almost as if he is talking to no one in particular.

At other times, Roger does the maneuver I discuss as ‘milling around’  - a term that I love and that I picked up from my dad’s Army stories. When Rog is milling around, he wanders to and fro in a somewhat frantic fashion. Sometimes, he’ll bang into our legs and, again, he’ll meow.

When he bangs into us, he’s sending a strong signal that he wants someone to go down to the garage with him to unlock the container of ‘the secret food.’ No matter the volume or quality of the food in his bowl, Roger is always convinced one of ‘his people’ can gain access to ‘the secret food,’ which is clearly better than what he has.

(Psst. Don’t tell him. There IS no secret food!)

He’s also noted for his ‘coming and going’ maneuver when he’s restless. When I say, ‘coming and going,’ I mean he’ll ask to go out and in no time at all, he wants to come in. He repeats this over and over. Out. In. Out. In.

This maneuver is always punctuated with his trademark meow sound, ‘Raaah.’ And if we have neglected to let him in on time, he’ll usually let us hear about it with a series of ‘Raaah’s.

Roger is probably the smartest cat I’ve ever known. He’ll frequently reach up to tap the door knob to signal he wants to go out, for example. He recognizes such words as ‘food,’ ‘treat’ and ‘out.’ He also knows his name.

Rog is also fairly high strung. I guess I’d say he is also the least laid back cat I’ve ever been around.

With his intelligence, it would be fun (and beneficial) to really be able to communicate with him. Lisa has often said that if she could have just five minutes every week during which time he could speak and fully understand human language, it would really pay dividends for us all.

I think if I could talk to him right now, I’d tell him just to sit back, relax and enjoy the Season. I’m just not sure he’s able to ‘chill out.’

JG

Originally posted 12/5/2012