Twenty-three minutes to post, a cat in my lap bent on playing with the touch pad, several ideas in my head, none of which can be explored in twenty-two minutes. An unpredictable wireless connection.
A cat on my lap licking my wrist as I type. I don’t like to be licked as I type.
My evening critique group has had an online conversation today about typing vs. keyboarding. Are papers still typewritten? Are papers still papers, for that matter. Do we come to the page or to the screen?
The cat has stopped licking my wrist and has hidden his face against my arm. He’s stretching his foreleg to pat the mouse, which lies on the arm of the recliner.
There’s another one: mouse.
Forty years ago, the sentence, The cat is patting the mouse, which lies on the arm of the recliner, would have sparked an image entirely different from the one it creates today.
Someday, perhaps, cat will have a meaning in the cyber world. Perhaps it already does.
He’s now stretching both forelegs toward the mouse and using his elbow to control the touch pad. The cursor jumps around. Boxes pop up, offering me the opportunity to do things I have no intention of doing. I have to take a hand off the keys to move the box.
He has shifted. Now he’s resting his head on my right hand. His left foreleg rests on my left hand. A minute ago he tried to rest his chin on my thumbs.
He’s shifted again. There are two forelegs on my left hand. His head is still on my right hand, but his whiskers are sticking straight up. Another stretch. Another shift. His head is up again.
Another shift. A paw on the keys.
I took the time to click Save.
The purring vibrates the chair. I hope it doesn’t dislodge something the laptop needs to keep going.
Two minutes. No time for a photograph. Time to post.
M. K. Waller 
Love your cat stories! My dog seems to think that because this new computer is smaller there’s more room for him when I’m in the recliner. I’ll try to post a pic of him “helping”.
I like your group discussion. Do we type pages without a typewriter and/or paper? If not, what do we do? Hmmmmm………….
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I understand your dog’s way of thinking. Please do post a picture of him helping you. This particular cat doesn’t care how much room there is or isn’t. He’d be happy to push the laptop onto the floor, and I think he tries.
RE: discussion. I don’t know what we do now, except that when we’re having those little online discussions, we’re not exactly writing. Well, whatever works…
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So much fun to have a pesky cat to stimulate your brain and save your day. I loved the idea of our new “cat and mouse” imgage.
Pat Bean http://patbean.wordpress.com
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Yes, if I hadn’t had William in my lap, that post would have been about two lines. But I often wish he were as polite as your Maggie. She looks like a person who can inspire without threatening to push the delete key before you can save.
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I love it when you write about the cat 🙂 They live to a different time and priority scale to us, don’t they?
I came back the other day to find the cat lying stretched out on the keyboard of the Mac, with BBC news blaring in her ear. She’s very well-informed.
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Cat priority = Cat. Period. Did you get a picture of the cat on the Mac? I would love to see that. She’s obviously thoughtful and polite, not to have tampered with the setting. Unless she accessed the BBC herself.
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