I did not grow up with cats. Despite that, I thought that I knew cats. I always loved them. Pspspsing cute stray cats was one of my favorite activities forever and always. And I did know a lot. But not everything. Of course, a bunch of things ended up surprising me. The fact that cats have purrsonalities - like, the fact that they are really opinionated and like making sure that we know their opinions. The fact that cats are smart - that they learn our patterns and use that knowledge against us all the time. And the fact that they even though cats hate vet visits, they love giving us heart attacks sometimes and forcing us to take them.
But one thing about cats that I thought was obvious that ended up taking me by surprise is that cats show affection in all kinds of silly ways. I knew about the meaning of slow blinking, and I knew that if a cat comes to cuddle you, that's basically a declaration of love. I did not know that them showing you their bootie is a sign of affection. I didn't know that my cat sleeping by my feet in bed is them showing love. For my cat specifically, I didn't know that her running to greet me when I come home is a way of showing affection until I realized that she only does it for me and no one else. And for Rotisserie Chicken - the kitty in today's story… showing love means being a rotisserie chicken.