Sam - Samwell - Samaroonie - Sammy - Samuel - Monster Cat

I don't want to turn this into a blog about how my cat is the king of the freaking universe, or even just one more cat blog. But, he is pretty cute. And he is turning into Sam the Wonder Cat of Many Names.

He has a number of endearing qualities that I simply must share (especially as I am about to abandon him for a week while I'm in FL and VA. Cheers to Jeannie who will feed, water, toss catnip mice, and scoop while I'm gone!):

• That boy can eviscerate a catnip mouse in about ten minutes. He's pretty good with the dangly feather toy, too.
• When I am at the table and not sitting flat against the back of my chair, he leaps onto my back (but with no claws out) then crawls up onto my shoulder. He does that when I am playing cards, too.
• He's cute. Have I mentioned that?
• His favourite place to snuggle is with back paws on my lap, front paws on my sternum, and head nuzzling mine. It's pretty fab. Since my first cat induced me to take her home from the shelter by placing one front paw on each shoulder and tucking her head under my chin and then never did it again I'm pretty thrilled that this behaviour hasn't vanished.
• He loves toys and plays with all of them, chasing mice and rubber balls with abandon.
• He comes when I call him.
• He sleeps at the foot of my bed.
• My desk is a honkingly big old metal desk with a typing tray that juts out at a ninety degree angle. I leave it open so that I have one more surface to clutter. Except that now it's HIS space. He sleeps there when I'm working at the desk. He's there now, purring away.

On the other hand, lest you think he is only angelic:

• He sometimes tries to sleep on the paperwork, on the laptop, on the cluttered desk. It's hard to type with a cat lying on the keys.
• If his food bowl is empty, he wakes me up at 6am.
• I've caught him sharpening his claws on the chair that belongs to the parish. I wouldn't like it any better if he sharpened his claws on MY chair, but at least it would be MY chair. Y'kno?
• He can be an insistent pain in the ass if he wants to be cuddled and I am, say, writing a sermon... or a blog entry.
• He has, on several occasions bitten when annoyed. Mostly it was my mother, though.