Mister follows me around. It's to the point that, if I don't have him watching me in the bathroom when I get ready in the morning, I get concerned. He comes looking for me, no matter where I am, and not just when he's hungry. He's almost like a watchful parent, making sure I'm alright. And if I sit still for just a minute, at the computer for example, he wants to be right near me. Not touching me necessarily (although when he does, it's really sweet also), but close by.
Otto has started seeking me out more frequently lately. If I'm on the couch, he wants to be there. He's been curling up next to me, or often right on my lap to settle in for a long winter's nap. And when he or Wanda gaze up at you, whiskers forward, eyes slightly closed, it is with the most exquisite look of love on their faces. It's corny I realize, but it's like our souls are connecting through our eyes. Sean's been getting this kind of treatment from Otto for years now (one reason they're joined at the hip, I suspect), but Otto's demonstrative love for me has been a relatively recent phenomenon. One way he's always shown his love is in what we've affectionately called the "fifty-fifty plop." This is when Sean and I are sitting together on a surface, and Otto will jump up on our laps, make a few circles on both of our laps at the same time, then carefully plop so that one half of his body is on my lap and one half is on Sean's. He's been doing this for years, and it's always exactly fifty-fifty. It's like he's doing little physics measurements in his head when he's figuring that out.
Reggie and Otto take turns jumping in Sean's lap in the morning. Otto will be in Sean's lap, and Reggie will wait patiently at his feet at the bottom of the stool Sean sometimes sits on. When Otto's done with lap-time, Reggie pats at Sean's leg to tell him to help him up. How many people would be that patient while waiting for quality time with someone else? I get a different version of Reggie's love though: Reggie shows me he loves me by repeatedly touching my face with his claws while I'm trying to sleep. Strangely, he never does that to Sean. It's a mystery.
And Elroy communicates his love more vocally. He has more amazing vocalizations than I've ever heard in a non-Siamese cat. He does this adorable little vocalization that reminds me a little of an elephant rumbling, but on a much smaller scale. He chirps and trills in a way that lets you know that he's delighted to get to be in your presence. For contrast, we know the vocalizations that mean, "hey, Big Buddy? I can see the bottom of the food bowls." These are different, and they're real.
They say that one of the reasons people sometimes don't get along in a marriage is that there are many different "love styles," and if you happen to be married to someone whose style is vastly different, sometimes you won't recognize it when they are showing you love the only way they know how. I think cats must be the same way. We've got one cat who shows love by his concern for you (Mister), two cats who show love by cuddling close and gazing meaningfully into our eyes (Otto and Wanda), one cat who shows he loves us by his patience (Reggie) and one who tells us he loves us every chance he gets (Elroy). We've been fortunate that none of our cats have the tendency to bring us "presents" to show us their love, since that can be a jarring and not very pleasant experience.
Here's a little picture to sum up all that wonderful, brotherly love:
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