Lucy jumps into my lap so often that I sometimes don't even notice. I'll just look down and go 'where the hell did that come from?' It's gotten so that I keep a thermal bag with a few beers in it beside the couch so I don't have to disturb her to get a fresh one.
This isn't a hijack, but I did want to mention something and it will save me starting a new thread to do it here.
It's been driving me absolutely nuts trying to figure out what to get my mother for Xmas. She's 95 and can't get out of bed (although the staff at the nursing home can put her into a wheelchair). It's a semi-private room, so there's very little space for anything. She already has about half a dozen stuffed animals with her, and a dozen more at the house that we could take to her, so that's out. I'd resorted to flowers for a while, but then got her some very realistic artificial ones that she still has.
Anyhow, W dragged me into the city last week to shop for the grandbrats, and we ended up spending a torturous hour in Toys 'r' Us. Just when I was starting to wish that someone would rob the store and shoot me, I ran across the perfect gift.
When I moved in with W a couple of years ago, I gave Lucy to my mother to keep her company, and she really misses her now. Obviously, she can't have a cat of her own in her present situation.
So what before my wondering eyes did appear but an incredibly life-like robot cat! The brand name is Fur Real, and it looks very much like Lucy except for the eye colour. There are touch sensors, a light detector, and a tail-pull sensor. For battery life, it crouches down and goes to sleep if left unstimulated for 3 minutes. In between sleeps, it purrs, meows, changes posture, and moves its tail, all in response to different stimulae. There's a video on the net for anyone who wants to check it out. (There are a few different robot cats on there; this is the pure white one with the aforementioned brand name.)
Okay, you may now return to your regular programme.