ESME, A CAT WHO KNOWS HOW TO TAKE A NAP, LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE & CHILL

Ever had a cat that simply seemed to be allowing you to live in her house?
Sometimes I get that feeling from this girl Esme. She is our featured feline for this weekend’s Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. She does, in fact, let’s sleeping dogs lie — I think that is her official policy regarding ALL dogs. 

That’s Esme sleeping in my funspouse Martha’s recliner. (In the second photo you can see that Esme has sensed someone is violating her tranquil space and has opened her beautiful eyes in anticipation of a yowling confrontation. I put away my phone camera; I can’t yowl.)
I think Esme nodded off and went into a full-on nap because there’s some sort of spell on that chair. I base that on the fact that a couple of minutes in that chair affects Martha the same way. Though, of course, she isn’t able to flop on her back in that chair and go paws-up.
We’ve had Esme since 2012 when she was a front porch feral kitten — one of many that were born either on the porch or near the porch during our 30 years at our home in Oak Cliff in Dallas. Most of them we found homes for and now and then the home we found was ours.

I cite, for example, two cats that may have come from the same gene pool as Esme: That’s Deputy Chief Kittie Leigh Johnson on the bedspread and that’s my office cat William Powell showing off his beautiful eyes and pink nose.
Esme is more tortie than those two, but there are so many similarities, including moodiness. 
Kittie Leigh arrived as a little cross-eyed kitten on the porch in 2011, just before Esme arrived. William came to the sanctuary, er, home, in 2018 — he helped me paint the woodwork on the outside of the house for two days. When I got the ladder out of the garage, he’d show up. When I put it away, he’s hide out in the front yard. Then, on the third day, he decided he’d stay. These three cats are wonderful companions.

I don’t know how much money we’ve spent on cats and kittens during our 30-plus years of marriage/rescue, but it continues to be worth it.
Esme is an example of the worth of a cat being emotional. Sometimes, when we’re watching TV, she’ll come padding into the room, look at Martha, then at me, and then she’ll jump up on the table between our chairs and pick a lap to lay in while the winning human gets to pet her. Yes, she’s in charge. 
Her name? Martha named her "Esme." One of Martha’s favorite movies is Foul Play with Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn and Burgess Meredith. The Burgess character has a pet snake named Esme who is contributes to the plot. 
Our Esme contributes to the plot of each day, too.
Appropriately affectionate, Esme is an example of a great friend, a listener and a personality with a definite opinion when the treat box is opened. She’s usually first in line — ahead of all the dogs and her fellow felines. That is Esme with some roses either she or Martha got when Rosie was about 5 years old. 
Oh, and Esme wanted to be sure that we wished Sir Paul McCartney a gloriously entertaining 80th birthday on the 18th. She mewed authoritatively, “He is one cool cat.” 
That’s a photo from the weekend’s The National, the newspaper “for all of Wales.”  Esme subscribes, but I’m not sure of her Welsh connections though my family is said to have roots there.
 Esme has been reviewing Sir Paul’s career to determine her favorite song. “They’re like a litter of kittens,” Esme said, “Who can pick a favorite from such greatness?”
[DEAR READERS: Surely you have a dog and/or a cat who owns your heart. Send us photos of the beloved beings sleeping and philosophizing  (email [email protected]) and we’ll spotlight them in our long-running feature, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. Remember, you might just be helping a family decide to open their home to a dog or cat who needs a happy place for the rest of their lives. And you’ll be helping insomniacs realize that they, too, can get some sleep if they can just figure how to fit upside-down into a recliner. Yes, that is the wonderful Esme caught stretching out and enjoying some quality time with a place to nap.
—- Leave opinions by clicking on ‘comment’ below or email [email protected] and put ‘BABY, I’M AMAZED’ in the subject line. —-