For the last several months, some of you that call me have noticed that during our conversations you will perdiodically hear a "MEOW" in the background.

Depending on how hungry Merlin is what determines the volume in which he meows. This is due to the fact that if he can actually see the botom of his food bowl regardless of the time of day and having nothing to do with whether or not he ate earlier that day he officially freaks out and tries to crawl in my lap even if I am standing up.

For those of you that have cats, and more specifically for those of you that have a Siamese, know exactly what I am reffering to. It is not important to Merlin whether or not I am on the phone with a good client or the president of the United States. It only matters to him that he can see the bottom of his food bowl and life as we know it in his spoiled existence will end as he knows it unless daddy rectifies this problem.

Some people who are not animal lovers will argue with the point that cats & dogs cannot actually understand what we say. For those of us that ARE animal lovers will have a far more biased answer to say that they can indeed comprehend what we say.

For Merlin & I in the evening when everyone else is asleep the vocabulary is simple: No, Not Now, & GO suffice. But those verbal commands last about 45 seconds, so I have decided to solve this dilemma with two cans of Pounce cat treats, four cans of Fancy Feast, a can of gourmet tuna from the fresh market & catnip.

If this fails, I will probably put him in the cabinet with his food and call it a day.

We can only hope that I don't have to resort to that as he is determined to be the fattest cat in the universe, and I'd rather not hear from my other half about how I spoil him when she goes to sleep.

No really, I don't.

I just feel that 135 meows an hour is a bit much if I am in the midst of a productive call with a client, unless of course Merlin has some important information for my clients.

I highly doubt that unless some of you speak Feline.

So, the next time we're on the phone and you hear Merlin meowing...you can just ask that famous question from the commercials long ago with a slight twist:

"Got Pounce?"

 

Zach