My cat rules my house. There's no pretending that I am his master and it's very apparent that he is in complete control of my actions. I love him, feed him, de-flea him, keep a clean litter box and buy an endless plethora of obnoxious bell-ringing or wind-up toys for him.

In return, he thanks me by snubbing me and my affections. If I lift him up to cradle him, he will put his paws on my mouth and push off, a sort of shut-up-and-drop-me-now maneuver. If I buy the wrong cat food, well, all cat-hell breaks loose and he will actually go on a feline hunger strike. If I don't keep a certain amount of litter in the litter box, he'll do his business and then start kicking the litter all over the linoleum.

Do I punish him? Do I yell at him? Nope. I add more litter, go get the correct cat food and it's pretty likely that I'll buy him yet another toy. Like I said, my cat rules my house.

But today, I was so tired from all of the activities this weekend that I wasn't in the mood for his demands, I just wanted to take a short nap on the couch.

This is where the stand-off began and it was epic. I laid down on our old and comfy couch, completely forgetting I was in my cat's favorite spot.

Meow.

I opened my right eye just a bit. "What now?"

He regally sat right in front of the couch, twitching his tail and looking straight at me.

"I'm not getting up, Chairman. I'm tired. You can sleep with me for twenty minutes, c'mon kitty kitty!"

I turned over so I wouldn't see him. He jumped up on the back of the couch and bent towards my face. Meow.

"What do you want? You have food, litter and toys. I'm not giving you this space. Go away."

He jumped on to my left side, sat on my shoulder and put his paws on my cheek.

Meeeeoooowwwwwwwwwwwww.

I tried to ignore him but he wouldn't get down. I just wanted to take a little nap and here was a cat on my shoulder, giving me the stink eye. What the heck did he want? After a few minutes, it finally hit me. Fresh water! My cat will only drink fresh, cold water or running water and I couldn't remember if I had filled his water dish that day. I felt bad. How could I sleep when the Chairman was dying of thirst and it was so hot out?

Yawning, I got up, fetched his bowl, went to the kitchen and filled it. I slowly and carefully set it back down thinking he would come running and start lapping up the water like there's no tomorrow.

"Kitty kitty, here's your water," I purred. He didn't come so I called him again. "Chairman?"

I walked around the corner towards the living room and there was my cat, sleeping peacefully on the couch in the same place where I was resting just minutes before. The little stinker got exactly what he wanted, and, I'm pretty sure he was smiling.

The score so far in the almost three years I've had him?

Cat = 27, Mia = 0.