Shameless plea, etc. part the fourth (and last?)

I had intended to space out the cats so that this series would end roughly about the same time that I returned to the kitchen. So much for that. Yesterday my advisor gave me the green light to go to another conference... next week... in Scotland. We got home from Denver rather late last night, and today has been a whirlwind of errands, laundry, and other activity in preparation for my next departure, a mere 36 hours after my arrival home from the last trip. Fortunately--trying to look on the bright side here--I can look forward to something like 17 hours of sitting on planes, which should allow me to catch my breath (and perhaps even a few winks). But the long and the short of it is that the blog will be quiet for another week and a half or so while I go hobnob with more physicists at St. Andrews.

Anyway:

Orbit is our cool cat. He is typically reserved, aloof, and calculating--especially if he spies something tasty that he knows he's not meant to eat. He waits in the wings and bides his time until we look away; then, in a split second, he snatches his prize and scampers off to enjoy it. He doesn't really have a nickname, but if he did, it might as well be "sneaky cat!"

Now and then, though, he breaks with convention in a burst of kittenish behavior or an intense demand for affection. He has a nightly ritual of burrowing underneath the comforter with us when we get into bed, and has even been known to sit in laps on special occasions. Mostly, though, he observes from afar: blinking sagely, twitching his tail, and no doubt plotting the untimely end of us two humans.