SUPER CATS, SUPER DOGS, SUPER NAPS, SUPER WEEKEND -- LIFE WITH THE SENATOR

It’s Super Bowl weekend, as you probably know, so could there be a better time to use our feature Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap to highlight my cat, The Senator?

He once was nimble and elusive runner -- what is called a “Scatback.” Never played the game, as they say in locker rooms.
The Senator doesn’t scat so much anymore. He believes his life experiences and ability to contribute to global problem-solving preclude the need to scat.
For example, I snapped this photo Friday morning as I was working on something at the dining room table, a structure we’ve turned into a laptop work table. 
I said, “Scat,” when he flopped down on my mouse. When he went immediately to sleep, I thought, “I can live with that. … I’ll just take his photos and embarrass him.”
 As it turns out, there’s no embarrassing a napping cat. When those eyelids shut, shame shuts down. He did stir (photo two), then he shook his head and went back to sleep. I went back to my Home Office and the desktop.
For a while, The Senator was helping me with composing The Lesser Dallas Novel: Two-Stepping In Hot Asphalt, but he grew weary of correcting my punctuation and musical references while making certain that Mr. Subject and Mr. Verb agreed. I’ll say this for the guy: He sure knows how to diagram a sentence.
That other photo with The Senator shows what happens when species blissfully co-exist — he’s napping on the couch with the household’s youngest feline, Stevie Ray, stretched between and adjacent to him our dear constant companion Porche Noel, the hippie chick dog. When it comes to slumber, Porche’s the leader of the pack.
The Senator and I have been workmates for more than 13 years — that’s longer than I went to public school but, as I understand it, not as long as The Senator was in office. 
He arrived in my world when he was a very mature five or six and he doesn’t like to talk about anything that occurred during his three terms in office, but, now and then, he’ll discuss the joy he got out of attending a couple of undisclosed Ivy League schools. He’s got graduate degrees in two key fields: Molecular Catology and Domestic Canine Philosophy. The first he describes as an ongoing feline intelligence study and the second… Well, the second…. Hmmm…
The Senator authoritatively says Canine Philosophy consisted of classes that focused on the study of personal comfort and enjoyment. Basically, he says, “The theme was ‘Two woofs and some treats’.”
So, in keeping with the weekend of the Super Bowl, we asked two dogs what they’re going to be doing during the game. 
Texas Earl the Cheeseman, our wonderful Rottie, grinned at the camera and declared, “Two woofs and some treats. Repeatedly.” 
The Border Collie/Chocolate Lab mix Dudley (prone in the background) chose cat-napping over responding and later explained he’d been practicing his Super Nap for Sunday’s game.

That’s our cat Esme, member of a feral litter born in 2012 — she loves to sit on the TV shelf and watch football. She told me, “The Cowboys aren’t playing in this game — I may stay awake for the entire Super Bowl! Maybe there’ll be cat commercials.”
The bet in Vegas is that my funspouse Martha will be out like a light before the first snap after the opening kickoff. Who? Oh, Kansas Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sorry. Forgot not all Americans are ape over the game.
The only emotion I’ll experience during the game is this: Gosh, I’ll always regret not having had a ticket to the 1/22/89 Bengals/49ers Super Bowl so I could see the halftime show starring Elvis Presto.
[LEGAL ASIDE: The Senator wants you all to know he was not on the Super Bowl Board of Directors that year. He was, however, a guest halftime dancer one year. This is a rehearsal photo.]
[DEAR READERS: Send photos and bios of your slumbering animals to dallrp@aol.com and we’ll post them and their stories in our long-running weekend feature Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. You’ll be helping people decide to bring lovely animals into their homes and you’ll be helping insomniacs realize they may have been frightened awake by ill-conceived halftime shows. Here’s the LINK TO THAT ELVIS PRESTO SHOW. Don’t click if you don't want to aggravate your insomnia.]
— Offer opinions or objections by clicking on ‘comments’ below or by emailing dallrp@aol.com. —-