He’s A Feline.

Some days Truman just wants to stretch out in the middle of the floor for a cat nap.

His loudest purrs occur when he’s in his old cat bed.

I found this old photo of Truman, taken right after we had moved into the house here in Tucson. He hadn’t figured out that it was OK to jump up on the window sill yet, so he used this approach to see what was going on in the desert.

Truman took a break from his busy pre-lunch nap for a selfie on International Cat Day.

Truman was slightly annoyed with the change in routine while were in California. Mike did a great job of tending to Truman needs, but there was no one to loudly arouse from slumber at dawn.

He’s now back on his routine and purrs with happiness.

Last week at work was very hectic. There’s a lot of moving pieces in the foundation of technology at work, and trying to build software to run on a moving foundation can be an interesting adventure. As the project manager likes to say on the daily stand up calls, we have “lots of opportunity”.

Truman’s occasional visits to my 10-12 hour days in my office keep me sane, grounded, and happy. He enjoys sitting on his cat tree and looking out the window at all that’s going on in the world. He seems something moving in the palm trees on either side of the window but to this day I’ve never figured out what’s catching his attention. There’s probably a lizard or gecko or bird or something that’s blending in with the colors of the plants.

Truman gets settled in for a nap.

Truman has spent much of the morning watching the wildlife (mostly doves and roadrunners) outside my office window. He did, however, take a moment to look at the weird guy with the box that takes photos.

There will be days where Truman spends most of his time upstairs relaxing in the master suite or the adjacent Observatory in his cat bed. (The observatory was built by the original designer of this house, we use it as an office and gaming area). Other days he’ll situate himself at my feet as I make my way through the workday. As long as there are occasionally treats and a couple of scritches behind the ears, he’s good. Otherwise he stretches out and only wakes up if I move my chair. We both assure he won’t be run over.

Truman enjoys watching the happenings of the birds and the like around the property. His two favorite places to watch these activities are the big window in our upstairs master suite and out the back door of the kitchen into the gazebo.

The big window is enjoyed from his strategically placed cat perch. Some doves have set up shop on the roof above the window. He keeps an eye on their landing patterns.

The kitchen view gives him ground level access to what’s running around out back. The dogs and Truman seem to have come to an understanding to not bother him when he’s in observation mode.

Truman looking over my work progress

With all the all-day meetings I had this week, Truman was displaying a bit of impatience when it came to pets and treats at the appropriate time. I tried to explain to him that sometimes the one that provides the treats has to talk to people elsewhere in the world. He didn’t care, he said they were probably dog people, and then he gave me a little bite on the leg to reinforce the point. That’s one of the things he likes to do, a little bite to get the point across. It’s only one bite at a time, there’s no other aggression and if I present my arm again he turns away. He just likes his kisses to count, I guess.