Staging a Feline Intervention

You can always tell when Sean has had to go out of town for work, because Otto can always be found in one place:  in a lump on our king-sized bed.  As I may have mentioned before, Otto is extremely codependent on Sean, and goes into a deep depression whenever Sean is not around.  I came home from work to find that Otto was a lump.  I went out to get dinner and came back--Otto was still a lump.  Ate my dinner, filled up the kibble bowls downstairs, and watched the rest of a movie.  Otto was still exhibiting definite lumpishness.  

After I answered a few emails, I went back into the bedroom to check on Otto and noticed that he was flanked on either side by Wanda and Elroy, both of them trying in their sweet kitty ways to convince Otto that life was indeed worth living.  Team Otto was working hard, but they weren't having any impact.  I decided it was time to step in and do something.  It was time for a kitty intervention.  

Kitty interventions when Sean is gone can take many forms.  Sometimes I ply them with mush and/or shakey treats.  Sometimes I convince Otto to play.  And sometimes, like tonight, I just pester Otto until he has no choice but to get off the bed just to avoid me.  (Hey, it's tough love, but it works.)  I started by picking at his shoulder fur until he started his retaliatory biting.  Then, I stuck my hand under the covers and poked at him until he was forced to get up and attack my fingers under there.  Then, I started grabbing at his legs from under the covers until he stretched himself, yawned, and jumped off the bed, to the joyous head bunts of his best-friend-in-the-world, Elroy.  After another good long stretch (copycatted admirably by Elroy), Otto trotted off to go downstairs and have a bite to eat.  

Mission mostly accomplished.  

Otto came back up as I was sitting back down at the computer to blog about him, just about the same moment that the phone rang.  It was Otto's Big Buddy, calling from Georgia.  I put him on speaker so he could talk to Otto for a minute.  Otto responded a little, and Elroy came over to head bunt him again and put in his two cents worth to Sean.  After I hung up with Sean, I grabbed Otto and stuck him in my lap, then situated him on there baby-style, rocking him in my arms while he cuddled in tight to my tummy, just the way he does with his Big Buddy Sean.  Otto purred happily and soaked up the cuddle.  I hadn't realized how hard it is to type with one hand.

After ten or fifteen minutes of this, Otto jumped off my lap and ran off to torment Reggie for a while.  Ah, things are finally back to normal.