THE SENATOR AND THE KID -- ACROSS THE GENERATIONS VIA NAPS & ADORATION

This edition of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap is dedicated to the generations that meet up and enjoy a nap on the family couch.
In this case, we have the elder statesman of American democracy, my personal feline advisor, The Senator. 
I’m using a term from the 1960s to describe that scene with The Senator and young Hastings the Rescued Kitten. Call it the “Generation Gap Nap.” 

The Senator is happy to be sharing a nap on the couch and its faux-sasquatch fur cover with the youngest cat in our house, the foundling Hastings, born probably in September 2021 and rescued on Oct. 4 from the middle of Duncanville’s Hastings Street.
When was The Senator born? No tellin’. We’ve had him since 2008 when he showed up on our front porch — apparently campaigning for a relatively quiet place to work on his memoirs. 
He already was an older fellow. So, we figure he’s 17 or 18 years old (maybe more), based on his slow and certain movements, patience with others and the ability to sleep constantly until mealtime when his internal alarm wakes him.
The Senator, (left) concentrating on honing something I've written, is an excellent editor. He knows how to guide a writer of potentially money-making fiction away from unlikely tales and wretched discussions of the art of romance. 
He’ll do that by stomping across the keyboard and sometimes tap-dancing on the delete button while wearing a wry smile. Writers and readers both thank him for his devotion to well-written prose and poetry.
Hastings is learning how to be part of a Cat Clowder. He was rescued alone. And he was blind at the time so he didn’t really understand how to “play well with others” until he regained vision in those beautiful eyes. (Click on that photo of Hastings in my office to make it grow and you can see the blue in his eyes.)
Back to the photo of Hastings on the couch: He is flopped there learning to nap from his mentor-in-manners, The Senator.

The Senator hasn’t been feeling well lately, but, thanks to his personal veterinarian, he’s back to eating robustly and sleeping properly and being a determined-to-be-respectfully-adored old cat.

He is my dear, dear friend — and, yes, trusted advisor. And it is such an emotional lift for me when I sit on the couch to watch TV or read and he rises from his spot on the back of the couch and steps onto my shoulder, then crawls down my chest to my lap and turns around to step back up and stick his beautiful ol’ cat face right into my beard so he can nuzzle my chin and purr. What a tribute! I have loved him from the moment I met him.
Same thing with Hastings, who’ll be lucky if he learns a smidgen of what The Senator knows about life, behavior and influencing human thought.
 Hastings was so tough to be out exploring in his situation — blind from gunk on his eyes, starving, uncertain of a kitten’s next move. And, now, he’s learning to be a Cat from the greatest Cat Advisor ever produced by the American system of political representation and feline admiration.
In that final photos you see how The Senator and the dog Porche are of one mind when it comes to relaxing on the living room couch and the faux-sasquatch cover. Sometimes they swap places on the couch without a spat! 
“If only humans could get along like we do,” the Senator has frequently suggested while he and Porche join me in watching the news on TV. He sometimes just sits and shakes his wonderful kitty cat noggin over the behavior of people here and abroad. I know how he feels. 
Yep, that's some fluffy tail on that cat Hastings! If he grows into it we'll have to widen the hallways in the house so he can twitch it without wrecking the walls.
[DEAR READERS, please send sleeper/napper photos of your household critters to [email protected] and we’ll post them in our weekend feature, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. We love showing off animals who know they are loved. We believe what you do helps other people decide to open their homes to animals. And we also think these features help insomniacs believe they too can get some sleep if they can just order one of those expensive sasquatch-style couch covers from the Area 51 Sasquatch & Saucermen Souvenir Shop in Nevada.]
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