Lap Wars

Lap Wars


I have a favorite chair—the brown chair. It is old and falling apart, but I think it is so comfortable. I love to curl up on it and read a book on the brown chair. Thunder the Wonder Cat loves to join me. Unfortunately, Maggie, aka Dumb Dog, likes to join me, too. Problems ensue…


Usually, Thunder is the first one to get to my lap since Maggie likes to play with her toys when I go into the living room. He climbs up so he can sit a couple of inches from my face and purrs and purrs and purrs. He still keeps an eye on the dog, as she makes a lot of noise and it disturbs him.



After a while, she is ready to take a nap. For a young dog, she needs a lot of sleep. She comes over to the chair and starts staring at us. About this time, Thunder turns around so he is facing in her directions and glares at her. My lap is his territory, and he doesn’t want any dog disturbing us.



Most times, Maggie goes to lay on the couch—watching us—waiting for her chance. Sometimes he face looks so sad that I expect tears to fall out of her eyes. Eventually, she will go to sleep.



Other times, she will put he front paws on the chair and Thunder we skittle off to his tower and glare at her. I don’t let her come up when she chases him off since I don’t want to encourage that behavior. I wait about 5 minutes or so. If Thunder doesn’t come back, I call her up to my lap.



So, instead of a tiny, soft, purring cat, I have 35 pounds of smelly dog engulfing me. She will promptly fall asleep. Sometimes, if there is room, Thunder will come back and lay next to her, but he will not purr, nor will he let any of his clean fur touch her smelliness.



There is a truce in the lap wars.