An exercise in Love

Here’s how you make a cat fall in love with you:
First, you give it a place to sleep.
Some cats will look at a KIng-sized bed and drool
Some cats are content with the kitchen counter.
This is a ruse. The cat will sleep wherever it wants to,
but it is important to have a designated spot.
Ideally, your laptop. Or even your lap.
Secondly, they need a place to stretch.
Please note that it is different from their sleeping spot.
While they may choose to stretch where they sleep,
it is important to have a designated spot.
Ideally the geometric centre of your house,
or right in front of the door when you are in a hurry.
Food comes next,
but this is more about what and not where.
Remember that cats eat anything you give it
but not always.
Remember that cats have very particular tastes
except on days they don’t.
Remember that cats yell at you when they are hungry
and when they are full.
and sometimes because they haven’t yelled at you in a while.
Finally when you’re convinced to the best of your knowledge
that you’ve given them all three,
(your knowledge, not the cat’s
because it is not in their nature to be satisfied of things)
you leave them alone
and not ask them if they love you back.
Cats, small as they are, have only one rule:
To not give what is asked.
So you love a cat and wait patiently,
Until one day when you are curled up in bed
or reading a book
or tired of answering too many emails
or wondering what is the point of all this really,
you feel a face smashing into you that is all fur
because cats, anarchist as they are,  have another rule:
To give what is not asked.