Oh Mom, those are just love thumps

I've written often about the feline curmudgeon I live with. His name is Gryffin and he is not fond of small children. In particular a loud 3 year old who lives with me too.

Yes, Gryffin now tolerates T, he always has but he gives her a wide birth. Because of this, I always know when T gets up in the morning, even before she opens her door.

Gryffin likes to sit quietly on my lap as I enjoy those last few moments of solitude and sip my coffee, soaking up any attention he can get. Without warning, he stops purring, tenses and his ears perk. That's the first sign that T is moving around in her room. I can't hear any noise but those feline ears can, despite his age.

With R, Gryffin has been different. Gryffin seems to have taken a shining to the boy. He makes a beeline for R's room the minute I go to put him down for a nap. He even sits in there after I've put R down for a nap.

In fairness to my feline friend, he did this too with T, however it didn't happen until she was nearly 2 years old. R is only 4 or so months old. T was equally as quiet as R at the same age, so it can't be it.

Tonight, as I fed R his last bit of formula, I rocked R in our rocking chair. I wasn't seated more than a minute when the door was pushed open and a little grey furry body made its way into the dimly lit room. Gryffin proceeded to make room on my lap for both R and him.

At one point, he turned his head opposite R's (after I might add, Gryffin gave R some love nudges with his nose) and thumped him with his tail. You know, love thumps. I think Gryffin figures that R is supposed to pet him. R was too tired to care or to comment.

The tail love thumps are what Gryffin does to us adults when he wants attention. He stands quietly by our legs and whacks us with his tail kinda like "Hello, I'm here therefore you must pet me. Now." He can be rather passive aggressive when he wants to be, unlike Phenix who is right there up your face when she wants attention.

I shouldn't complain though, at least Gryffin likes one of the kids. I think the reason he comes in when its nap or bedtime is that the kids are usually quieter and he can snuggle right along with us.

No pain, no gain seems to be his motto with the junior set. He wants attention and he will tolerate the kids to get it. Or maybe he is just mellowing with age.

For whatever his reason is, I don't care, its just nice to have everyone together.