Johnny's Favorite Chair

Johnny is our ubersocial kitty.  She almost always chooses to be near people.  

Ginger is more prone to coming and going.  Some days she follows me like a shadow--and she still comes running when I call her--but she also likes to do her own thing.  She's no fan of visitors and prefers to pass her time on the main floor of our house.  Well, actually, she prefers the garden and will ditch us alllllllllll day out there if permitted.  Her second choice is upstairs and the basement comes in dead last.  Ginger loves sitting on our laps, but if Matt and I are being busybodies (painting, cooking, throwing darts) she'll just curl up on her own somewhere.  ...like in the garden.

Back to Johnny though.  She even enjoys it when we have friends over.  She makes the rounds at parties.  She begs for attention from everyone with her hopeful eyes and forceful meow.   She is flexible and keen to cozy up any ol' place for the long haul.  If we're cooking she posts up on the dining room carpet.  If we're playing Dr. Mario in the basement she has her blanket spot adjacent to the sofa.  In the morning, she beaches herself in the hall so it is convenient for us to rub her belly and scratch her chin as we repeatedly pass by getting ready for work.  When I am sewing she demands a place to sit on my sewing table.  When Matt works out in the morning she keeps him company from the couch.  And so on.  And then there is what happens when we're at the puzzle table.  Johnny has her favorite spot there, too. 

Her preferred puzzlin' spot is whatever chair Matt is using first.  It cracks me up.  I'm certain it pleases Matt, too, though he feigns minor annoyance.  

See, we have two chairs around the puzzle table that are completely identical: a well-loved green velveteen pair that Matt's had forever.  It doesn't matter which one Matt chooses, that is the one Johnny will want.  She mills around his feet, circling the chair he's sitting in, beaming up at us with her big, optimistic eyes.  She cocks her head side to side like maybe she could figure out a way to squeeze up there with him.  Sometimes she meows at him if he doesn't take the hint.  And then around and around she goes until Matt acquiesces.  He stands.  Johnny scrabbles up into the vacated chair and Matt switches to the other one.  An identical one, I would like to reiterate.  This happens nearly every single time we sit down to work the puzzle.  It makes me smile.

I'm convinced it is because Johnny enjoys Matt's scent.  From his shoes to his dirty laundry to his chair.  And beecause she loves Matt full stop, of course.   We all do.  I just don't steal his chair to demonstrate it.  Takes all kinds in this world, eh?