Usually, owning cats is a delight. But sometimes, cats are not conducive to the reading life. Observe:
- Every book I borrow ends up with cat fur in it. The longer I keep a book, the fuzzier it gets.
- My cats don’t understand what I’m doing when I stare at my iPad or a book. They think I’m not busy:
- Ari (the white and brown one) will sit in the gutter of print books.
- Both cats will touch or brush my iPad screen with their ears and turn the page on me.
- Mogwai (the tabby) like to try and curl up in my arms while I’m reading, so I end up trying to read around his fat head.
- A sleeping cat in your lap increases your desire to nap exponentially, thus decreasing the time available to read.
- Books with bookmarks sown into the binding are basically cat toys.
- My cats have learned that I love neat, organized shelves and that they can get my attention by knocking books off the shelf one…by…one.
- Just try juggling a book, a mug of tea, and a cat that wants scritches.
- Mogwai sometimes thinks turning pages is a game. And he wants to play, too.
- Both cats have a bad habit of getting lost in the cupboards just when I get to an exciting part or am ten pages from the end of a book. Sometimes I read on before I go rescue them.
- Scent-marking any books that comes in the house. All pets are secretly engaged in chemical warfare with each other and books are just another battlefield. It’s just weird.
- And for the triple crown of dorkiness: the cats will often try and climb inside my cardigan when I’m reading.