ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS THIS COLORFUL OFFICE RUG....

Our theme this weekend is “Medication.” I’m sorry. That’s a typo. I meant to write that our theme is “mediTation.” I was distracted by a cad. I mean cat. See how easy it is to hit the wrong key?
This is, of course, our long-running weekend feature, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. We have one of each.
As it turns out, I personally know both of these distinct personalities. I have written with one of them in the same room with me since 2009 — that’s my girl Porche Noel, found on the porch at Christmas. And the other is William Powell, my Office Cat since 2018 — I hired him after he and I painted a house together. Seemed like if he could keep the brushes and the buckets straight, he might work out as an office cat/literary advisor.
But, never mind their resumes, meditation is our topic for this edition.

Anybody who lives with a yutz who yearns to be a highly-paid fiction writer needs a place to meditate. Ask my literatespouse Martha, the only person in the house who can say, “You oughta rewrite that. Where’s my comfort bag?” She says it. Porche gives off a low growl and pretends to gack. William just shakes his head, picks up his copy of House Cat Monthly and walks off to work the magazine’s Catsword Puzzle.

A couple of years ago, Porche, the cerebral type, went online and bought her Universal Carpet of Household Meditation. This is, according to the Contemplative Handbook of Usage, the “60s Model, for Dogs AND Cats.” 
I wouldn’t know for sure what that indicates, but “free spirit” is the term that comes to mind. .
As you can see in that first photo, Porche likes to meditate on the edge of the known universe. Sometimes you can hear her “ommmmmm” gently traveling from her meditative belly through the office. 
She influenced William Powell The Office Cat to “give the rug a ride,” as she put it in her flower child hipness. It took a couple of days of campaigning — Porche would wake William not by shaking his food dish but by asking “Alexa, please play Marakesh Express.” 
As you can see from the photos, they have different approaches to the Universal Carpet of Household Mediation. Neither will soil it, of course. A calm mind doesn’t soil carpets.
 Porche may like to be at the edge of the colorful mind travel mat, but William prefers a solid pose in the heart of the universe.
We’ll close with Porche’s sleepy face photo first, then, to the meditative mix, I’ll add two photos of William as he explained his new take on a calm and thoughtful life to me. He’s such a handsome boy. Those antlers? They’re on a decoration we keep in the office. “Makes you write merrily,” advised my gramatically correct office cat, William Powell.

As you can tell from the photos, “A calmed mind is a great sleeping companion.”
And that’s the story of two of the meditative household individuals I love. The others paid me not to write about them.
So, here’s the LINK TO Crosby, Stills and Nash performing 1969’s MARAKESH EXPRESS.

[DEAR READERS: Please send us photographs of your slumbering dogs and snoozing cats and the stories of their lives and your love for them by emailing [email protected]. We’ll proudly post their tales and tails in Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap on readlarrypowell.com. Why? Because we love them already. You may be helping a household decide to acquire a dog or cat from a tough spot in a shelter — it’s a matter of activating the love. And, you may just be convincing insomniacs (other than me) that they can get some sleep if they’ll just flop down on a hippie-designed mat go “ommmmmm.”]

— Offer sleeping tips or wakeful thoughts by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected] and put ‘COOL SIDE OF THE PILLOW, GOOFBALL’ in the subject line. —