I have a cat (one of three we share our home with). Her name is Eowyn and she’s fourteen years old, thin but in good health. In her day I do believe that she could have slain a Nazgul. One of her nicknames is “My Mean Widdle Cat”. She likes to sit on a side table in the kitchen and occasionally snag my husband with one claw if he walks by too close to her. I have to remember to look before sitting in my studio chair sometimes lest she has occupied it while I’ve gone into the house for something. There have been close calls. I really don’t want Pancake Cat.

She usually comes into the studio each working day to hang out, interrupt me and catch some zzzzs. I’ve set up a spot for her on my desk and sometimes she even deigns to use it. Having her on my lap while I paint is…interesting, but I’ve managed.

She has a newish thing that she likes to do which is to jump the 3 feet (I just measured it) from a small rolling file drawer next to my drawing table (behind my easel in the photo at the top) to the middle of a row of three-drawer vertical file cabinets stacked with loose stuff to be filed. From there she will try to winkle her way onto the shelf that has my amplifier on it. This does not work. So then she’ll do a tour of the next shelf up.

Or she’ll cut to the chase and jump up onto the top shelf and look around.

I don’t even hold my breath anymore. Somehow she manages not to disturb any of the tchotchkes on it.

Until she’s ready to get down. Then she neatly knocks the stuffed owl off the shelf and jumps back onto the tall filing cabinets, then onto the shorter ones and finally to my desk or the floor.

Amazingly, I manage to catch her in mid-jump a couple of weeks ago.

You Shall Not Work.