Pussycat's Progress

Pandy Bear

Pandy Bear seems finally to be coming out of his depression. For months after my mother died, he would lay on the hall rug, on his side, staring off into space with the saddest, emptiest look on his face. On the rare occasions when he moved (mostly to eat) he would look up at me with the most forlorn expression.

I tried to draw him out. The other cats will play with string or catnip toys, but Pandy doesn't seem to know what to do with string (he would stare at it morosely no matter how much I wiggled it) and the most a catnip toy could get out of him was for him to draw it up to his chin and use it for a pillow.

Petting or brushing him would perk him up a lot, but it was just a temporary fix. That and food. Already a fat old football of a cat, I think he got even bigger after mom died.

The only thing that seemed to do anything for him was to call his name and get him to follow me around to my end of the house, either when I was going to be working at the computer or at bedtime. Then he would get the happiest look on his face as he followed along. He realized that he liked the view from the front door. He ran up the stairs and jumped into my bathroom window. He's jumping up onto the counter now where the second food dish is kept.

When I'm at the computer or watching telly, he comes lumping along and sits on my feet.

And for the past two nights he's actually slept with me. This is unheard of. I wake up in the morning and he's at the foot of the bed looking up at me happily. (Honey doesn't seem to mind, even though she believes that the owns the upstairs).

Now if I could just get him to go on a diet!