Bracken - Full Steam Ahead!

Bracken has fully adjusted to being an 'only' cat with arthritis to slow her down at times, which seems to be under control with her daily dose of medicine. The manufacturers did extremely well to get the taste suited to particular palates - on the sweet side - and it mixes well with the Ocean Fish Pate she gets every morning. We changed up from evenings so she could be more lithe during the day and I think that has worked well. 

She gets annoyed when I breathe at times while she lies beside me. And, boy, she hates me texting then as well. At times she wants my hand touching her, two minutes later she has changed her mind! Then I get the love times - her head on my hand, then one leg lies over my arm [albeit an occasional claw is misplaced and jabs straight into my arm!]!!! Bliss, but arthritis in MY fingers/hand often make this a much shorter time than she is willing to give - the left hand would be better, but she won't lie there, has to be on my right side. So, I let her lie as long as I can manage before disturbing her with apologies as the hand HAS to move away before I want to scream with the pain. Of course I tell her why I am moving my hand away, does she understand? I do know she understands a lot of what I tell her - can stop her chasing birds, give her a time limit for last time outside of an evening [she often comes in early and feels resigned to being locked up for the night at a time when she would dearly love to frolic in the moonlight], still need to work on getting her to stay still when I want to move past/over - 'don't move' is currently the best command. Cats are notorious in moving the wrong way - a wheelchair-bound friend said that no matter how often they nearly ended up under the wheels her cats just didn't realise what was the right way to move. I even hired a wheelchair for a week while I was in London to test this out for myself - it is true, unfortunately, all four cats decided the wheels were interesting!!

Cats are a bit like humans - people stop to speak on the narrowest part of pavement, not worried about how others cannot get past or they'll block a shop's doorway - Bracken often lies in doorways or thereabouts, then when she decides to move, which way? - yes, straight into my feet!