Obi Personal Log Aged One and Eleven Twelfths (nearly): Cat Training

Today has been exceptionally busy for me. I have begun an intense course of cat training. Not for me obvs. For the cat.
He and I are taking our friendship to a new level. This has been due to my tireless work observing and then facilitating the meeting of his every need.
Today, although it hasn’t been especially cold, Bertie has been in. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’ve had him in my sight since we first met, but until today I have kept a very respectful interspecies distance (hopeless even trying with human beans but understood by much of the animal world if not the insect.)
I took my time but my learning outcome (my mum does lectures – you pick the jargon up quickly if you’re bright) was that we should feel relaxed and comfortable together. I stayed close to Mum, the stillest I’ve ever been. I told my body as I drifted off to sleep that I mustn’t dream in a way that makes my legs kick out or my breath go short and huffy. My original plan was to stay still – but vigilant until we had first contact – Bertie touching me. I may have dozed for a second, but when I came to, Bertie was curled up covering my back feet. He didn’t even move when I lifted my head to look at Mum to check that she had seen the excellent progress he was making.
Getting Bertie an appropriate reward was more challenging. As I’ve mentioned before my Mum can be slow to cotton on to what I’m asking of her. A classic example; placing one of the socks I carefully removed from her foot on her lap for the second time after she had dropped it. I had gone to considerable trouble to hollow out the toe end to allow more air to circulate (I am not implying we have a foot odour issue) but it was greeted with muted congratulations. Little appreciation given the supreme thoughtfulness involved.
Persuading Mum to try giving Bertie one of my dog treats to show my appreciation was like teaching the alphabet to chimpanzees. Yes, of course if you wait long enough you’ll get The Complete Works of Shakespeare but there may be a few unintelligible sentences in between.
Eventually (I did not hold my breath) we tried the dog treat. I knew I was right! Bertie almost swallowed it whole with that ‘nom, nom’ sound he makes when he’s munching on something especially rewarding. Mum giggled and so Bertie and I had two treats each. (Yes, she was on a roll.)
It’s been challenging but cats were covered in training. I now feel I have won an assistant over to the Pudgy Mum Support Team. He went and sat on her, which I guess is a start.