For most of the time, Franklin was not necessarily a cuddly cat. He seemed always so busy, occupied with checking things out, running back and forth, playing, or sleeping on his own. Even when we would pick him up, he was squirmy and you couldn’t really hold him in your arms for that long. But when Franklin came to us and turned on his side for a belly rub, that was when he was ready to do some serious cuddling.

And this was entirely on Franklin’s terms. Sometimes he would do it just for a bit. Other times he wanted all the attention for like half an hour. Usually the best time was either in the evening as we were getting in bed or in the morning if we were sitting on the couch with a blanket over our laps. You see, Franklin liked do his belly rubs on a comfy blanket. But Franklin would do a belly rub during the daytime especially if one of us was lying in bed, so he absolutely loved if someone was sick because it meant more belly time. Once when I couldn’t sleep and was sitting out on our couch in the living room, he came and we did a belly rub.

The thing was, a belly rub wasn’t just rare in terms of time. It was just as much about the relationship that Franklin had. I don’t know if I ever saw him do a belly rub for anyone else other than Anna and me. And he didn’t always like to do a belly rub if we were not both sitting or lying down. If I would walk into a room where he was getting a belly rub, he would jump up and act all tough. He didn’t want to seem like a softy, even though he absolutely was one. We even said to each other when we were being vulnerable that we needed to show our bellies, just like Franklin did.

This was an absolutely legendary belly rub for me, when he all the way upside down and was just full belly out for half an hour:

When we were able to finally visit Franklin in the hospital, we didn’t know how he would be doing. But as soon as he was in the room with us and sitting a blanket, he started to turn over and we were able to get in a wonderful belly rub. I won’t share a picture but we were all so glad we got to do that.

Love,

Garrett and Anna