Ever since I returned from a four day break in Port­land, my cat Trou­ble has been par­tic­u­larly affec­tion­ate and noisy. The day I returned, he meowed through the night right next to me bed. I felt really guilty for mak­ing him so lonely, but even­tu­ally, he returned to normal.

Or so I thought. Lately, he’s been climb­ing high places, point­ing his tail straight up and then twitch­ing it like a big furry vibra­tor while he meows at me plead­ingly. I pet him, I stroke him, I feed him treats, but noth­ing pla­cates his strange new behavior.

I searched for twitch­ing tails online and some sites sug­gest that he’s “offer­ing a friendly, cheer­ful greet­ing” except for the twitch­ing, which is asso­ci­ated with either being intensely annoyed or intensely happy. Is he still pissed off at me for leav­ing him alone so long? Or is he happy that haven’t left again?

Maybe I should just get him a lit­tle kit­ten to pick on while I’m gone.