cat facing

Often when I'm sitting at my desk, a little cat-face will peer around the corner. It's Pippin, who is interested in my room but doesn't want to come in when I'm there. If I pretend I can't see him, though, sometimes he'll venture a little farther. Whether he explores the room when I'm not in it I don't know. Pippin is a Heisenbergian cat: his actions are definitely affected by whether he's being observed.

Pandora is more typically feline. She comes in the room to demand attention, wanders around under my feet expecting to be stroked and meows loudly if it doesn't happen. Then she'll go sit on anything - papers, a book - that happens to be on the floor, then comes back for more petting, then leaves. She has no desire to sit on my lap or my keyboard (unlike B's), and certainly does not want to be picked up.

I spend enough time continuously at my desk that a real lap cat would be happy here. And I would be happy too. Not only would I have a cat in my lap, but it would help control my habit of interrupting my writing composition by getting up and wandering around. I'm not sure why I feel the need to do that: it doesn't really help me think.

But that would require a normal cat, a creature that does not exist.