So maybe it is partially my fault.
I could see where i am to blame for the whole thing.  I mean after all i was the one who came in last night, 30 minutes late no less, having decided that i wanted to make myself pizza.  I was the one who walked directly to the fridge and got some yeast activating instead of showering 20 minutes of attention directly on the head of the cat.  It doesn't matter that i spent the next 15 minutes as the yeast was activating with the cat on my lap, because after that 15 i spent 15 more kneading and etc.  What would it matter that i spent the 45 minutes of rising time trying to make friendly?  None, apparently.
   Isaac was particularly whiny last night but there is really not that much i can do about that.  I guess the fact that while i was eating he had taken up station on the chair away from the couch was a first indication.  The second was that when i was done i called him and all he did was raise his head and look at me and put it back down to sleep.  Now, this is pretty much normal cat type behaviour most of you might say, and i think i would be pretty darned reassured and happy that this cat was like that, were he, but he is not.  My lap is pretty much the best place for him to hang out at all times in his mind.  And not in one of those, 'awww i love you so much big fat master food provider type person' but more in the 'i am neurotic and need some sort of contact to prove the validation of my existence types.'
    Of course i missed these signs.  I apparently am pretty much an optimist where the behaviour of other beings is concerned and just decided that he was tired and didn't want to move.  I had thought that this was confirmed when i woke up, lying on the couch at 1 a.m. with the feeling of warm fur on either side of the insides of my feet.  Or perhaps by the way that after i had stumbled into bed and called out, 'c'mere isaac' he practically teleported his way onto the bed and even came up to my head to say hi before he went to his sleep station between my legs.

well, no.

   fast forward to 4 a.m. i rise out of a drifting sleep to hear a cat wailing, perhaps only medium loud, in relatively short bursts from some other room.  i call out, 'hello isaac,'  you know not right away, not before he had had a chance to say a few more things.  Based upon tone, pitch and duration my sleepy mind happily translated the calls in to, 'i'mmmmm bored', 'i'm looooonely', 'nooooooo one loves me' and 'why do i even bother to be alive.'  as he normally does as i call this out, he comes to visit, any attention is good attention in his books.  pet pet pet, purr purr purr, pet pet pet, sleeeeeeeep.....waiiiiiiiiil, 'everybody thinks i'm nobody.'  call out, pet pet pet...you get the picture. i have decided after about 3 iterations of this, and after my calling out has become ones of semi-angry semi-groggy admonishment that maybe something is actually wrong.
    I have been told that he used to whine when his food dish is empty and he has actually been finishing his food of late. maybe he was actually looking for food early.  a few more calls later and i roll out of bed, you know, to either check the food situation out, find something wrong, or dump a bucket of water on the poor dear's head.  nope. food left. his favourite of his two water dishes is empty, so i fill it, hoping for the best.  he comes and looks, takes a drink and then follows me to the bathroom where he proceeds to wail some more.
   grumble.
   (sorry, had to be said) being much wider awake now, and not even particularly tired (see above for nap details) i decide that maybe he would like a treat and a furry mouse to play with. (there is nothing, besides his old parents and my lap that he loves better than furry mice) after all, a furry mouse would keep him occupied.  so he quite happily accepts the treats i donate to the worship of the isaac fund and acts quite happy to have received a mouse. 
   he, in fact, tears right into it and has a good ole time.  so i wander around and shut off lights i had managed to turn on and had a drink of water.  i am on my back to my room and i spot him staring at the couch.  staring at the couch is of course code for the mouse having gone under there.   i secretly think that he believes that the mouse might some day come out on its own.  it has not yet to my knowledge.  i sigh, grab the back scratcher slash digger out of mice from under the couch stick thingimy (i actually bought it to be the latter) lie face down on the couch (the best digger position) and dig him out one mouse. 
   then i decide this is kind of comfortable and we drift into a game of fetch-pet.  fetch pet is kind of like straight fetch only isaac has only figured out fetch to a certain point.  he fetches quite nicely but sometimes he drops it on the way back to me, a little out of my reach, and i can reach pretty far with my bssdoomfutcst, and then keeps coming to wait for me to throw. without having a mouse to throw, rather than have him be all disappointed i pet him.  isaac is funny, as needy as he is, he still only wants to be pet when he wants and about a third of the time that i pet him he just bites at me.  but not this time, he quite happily accepts the attention and i pet until he has forgotten that i am supposed to be be throwing the mouse for him.  at this point i stop petting and he wanders off only to discover the mouse again, attacking it with verve. hence a game of fetch-pet.  another few attacks and he brings it back again, usually getting it to me this time.
   well, i play for a little while, marveling at how comfortable lying on a couch on your belly staring at the floor can be.  (i marvel at this every time i learn it) and then i get up and head off for bed, isaac playing with the mouse.  he wailed, i think one more time and then came up and settled in his sleep station.  i never heard from him again until morning.  at which time i actually found him curled up right beside my head. it was almost adorable.  in all, i think i was up for 40 minutes with the cat.

   so guess what i am doing right now? ignoring him to work on this entry