Boys in the Bedroom

The boy’s lives changed dramatically after Molly died. Because she was very old and frail and sometimes ornery, she lived in our master bedroom exclusively. She did not like the boys and did not want to fraternize with them one bit. On the other side of the door however the boys were dying to get into this secret chamber that was off limits to them, but for quite different reasons.

Casper had been in love with Molly for all of the years he has been with us. He would spend hours in the adjoining bedroom under the bed, spying through a large decorative heating grate in the wall. He would watch her moving around in the bedroom and pine for his ladycat who would not acknowledge his existence. Ben on the other hand just wanted to be with us and was very jealous of the mysterious room where we disappeared. When I would go into the bedroom to spend time with Molly or in the evening when we went to sleep he would jump up and down at the door trying to peer through the frosted glass and scratch on the panes at all hours of the night. Archie, who has only been with us for seven months, found the behaviour of his brothers somewhat comical and wondered what all the fuss was about. He did however agree that there must be something interesting behind the door and as always was in the thick of things.

The day after Molly went to the bridge, we opened the door to the bedroom and let the boys come in. Casper entered the room sniffing every inch for a trace of his Molly, Ben moved slowly head-bobbing the entire time because he knew he had never been allowed in before, and Archie galloped down the hall, blew past both of them and hurdled onto the bed in his normal “ta-da here I am” fashion.

Three Amigos

The three of them explored every inch of the room and jumped on every surface...dressers, bedside tables and closets were all investigated. Then they settled on the bed and did not leave. For days it seemed that all they did was change sleeping positions, were it not for the fact that food was eaten and boxes were used I never would have guessed that they left the room at all while we were at work! The first night there was very little sleeping done by either Robert or myself; thank goodness it was Friday and we didn’t have to get up early the next morning. Our excited boys ran, jumped, played, tussled, and knocked things over all night! Every book I had on my nightstand ended up on the floor along with my coaster and a bottle of water. The boys were thrilled with this new arrangement and spent extended periods of time leaping on an off the bed; just because they could. We also now had to get used to several heavy cats on the bed at once sleeping, leaning, curled and stretched over various parts of our bodies (Molly slept either on my pillow or in her basket which was on a bench at the foot of our bed). Does all this activity and late-night kitty shenanigans sound awful? Actually I loved every minute of their enthusiasm and seeing them so happy was the one bright spot during a very sad time!

Blissed Out Boy