Settling Into a New Cycle

We seem to be in a different kind of cycle. We eat dinner. Lion snoozes. We snuggle. Maybe we play. I’m not saying it’s a bad cycle. I actually like it. Lion gets refreshed and if we play a little later, it’s okay.

Both of us have trouble sleeping. We may sleep, but we don’t sleep well or we wake up many times in the night. Either way, we’re tired the next day. I’ve been known to join Lion in a nap but I usually don’t. Lion can fall asleep the second he pulls up the covers. For a while, Lion thought I was not playing with him because he snoozed for a while. Also for a while, he said I waited until it was too late to play. I guess I got used to, at least trying, to play early. If he was snoozing, I assumed it was “too late” sometimes when he woke up. Other times, I might have been ready to play early, but by the time he woke up, I was no longer ready to play. Now, it seems, we’ve decided that we can play once he wakes up since he’ll be rested and ready to go.

For a few nights, Lion wasn’t interested in playing. Tuesday night, I was annoyed that I’d put the wrong address on an online order and that wiped out any chance that I’d want to play. Last night, however, we were both ready. Lion had been under the covers so my balls were nice and warm. I’m sure he thinks I’m silly when I bury my face in them. To each his, or her, own.

It took a while to get Lion anywhere near the edge. I thought I might have to stop because my shoulder was hurting, but I managed to change positions and continue. I don’t mind how long it takes, as long as my body holds out. I know it feels good to him even if he never makes it to the edge. Luckily, I got him there.

If I do have a pattern, it’s that I get him to the edge the first time, I back off and let him recover for a minute or two. Subsequent times, I tend to go right back at him. I’m not sure why I do that. It would seem that the longer I edge him, the closer he is. If I go right back, I risk going too far. And why pause after the first time? Why not go right back then and wait until he’s really excited to give him some time? I don’t have an answer. I do know that I went right back to it last night after his first near miss. Of course, I stopped then too. I wonder which way he prefers. I wonder if he even notices.

Lion?

[Lion comments — I do notice the longer pause. I wondered about why Mrs. Lion did it when on subsequent attacks she shows no mercy. I suppose that it’s more exciting when she doesn’t give me much of a chance to recover.]