I'll be the first one to admit that I'm often not very nice to Greg House. He always seems to find the perfect moment to annoy me most--climbing into my lap while I'm knitting, meowing incessantly just as I've put Bryony to sleep and then causing her to wake up again, eating my houseplants, and so on and so on. Annoy me as he might, I'll also be the first one to say what a genuinely good-hearted creature he is. In his time with us, he's never hissed or taken a swipe at us out of malice, and (so very very thankfully) he has been very tolerant with Bryony in this first year of her life.
Saturday night I was lying in bed, talking on the phone with a girlfriend; Greg House was resting near my feet. Around 1:30am Bryony's cries flooded through the monitor. Greg House jumped off the bed and ran into the next room, presumably to get away from the piercing cries from the monitor. I let her cry for a few minutes, as I had just fed her an hour earlier and knew she wasn't hungry. However, after more than ten minutes of continued crying, I ended my phone call and walked down the hall to Bryony's room...only to find Greg House camped outside her door, waiting for me to take care of "his" little girl. I was touched and overwhelmed. Could this cat, who has been so patient and tolerant of my naively brutish infant, really care enough to sit vigil outside her room? I opened the door to her room to find her standing at the end of her crib, screaming for comfort from what ailed her. Greg House silently slipped past my legs as I walked in, and then took up sentry duty next to the rocking chair as I managed to relieve Bryony of the gas that had been causing her pain. Greg House stayed right by the chair, somehow knowing not to make a sound, as I quieted her back to sleep, and eventually went to place her back in her crib. As soon as he saw me lift her in, he slipped back out of her room as quietly as he came in. Baby girl was okay. His job--to wait, watch and rest assured--was done. They love each other, the baby and the cat. And I love them.
2 comments:
How nice. Even though he makes me sneeze I love Greg House now. :)
He loves you, too. His dander is just his way of showing it. :-)
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