Muffin in repose



The Muffin Escort Service




Whenever anyone comes to visit, Muffin and George seek shelter, whereas Cloudberry waits at the top of the stairs to see who it is. However, Muffin (the Persian tortie) has her moments of glory even in that situation: Muffin escorts visitors out the door.

Some of Muffin's favorite times are visitors who are on a regular schedule when she can anticipate the time of departure. Of course, being easily excitable, she tends to overanticipate and goes into action at the least sign. After a number of false cues, she can become disappointed, and so telling her to get ready for escort duty brings her running.

The following sequence is from a video shot under ordinary lightbulbs (which leave a miserable yellow cast), but it shows the action as we experience the Muffin escort service.
 
Escort preparation

Sue (on the left) called to Muffin, and Muffin trots up the hallway at a goodly pace.
 
Kick-ass shoes to the stairway

Muffin positions herself pointing toward the stairway and exit, just in case the guest in hand is unsure of its location. She calmly waits until our friend (know here as the Woman with Kick-Ass Shoes) starts descending.
 
Diving down the stairway

The moment that Muffin is positive that the visitor is indeed on the way out, she dives down the stairs to be at the door first.
 
Goodnight

At the bottom of the stairway, a dance occurs between Sue, visitor (with kick-ass shoes), and Muffin while there are various attempts to open the door and pet Muffin.
 
A Muffin postmortem

Afterward, Muffin tends to stay at the bottom of the stairs for a while. It is a sort of postmortem, in which she perhaps wonders on what scale should she rate the night's escort.




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