The cat and I in At the foot of the hill

My son and his family are on "spring break" in sunny Arizona this week. Papa (Bob) is the designated cat tender while they are gone. Myself, I'm not much of a cat person, but yesterday Papa was working a full day at his volunteer job as tax preparer and asked if I would go over and see to the cat. The cat knows I don't care much for him and the feeling seems to be mutual because he always takes a wide berth around me. When I opened the front door, he came running from upstairs about a third of the way down. He saw me and stopped cold in his tracks. I spoke to him softly and he came down, made a loop through the hallway, kitchen, dining room and living, back to the door and around me. I kept talking to him while I put down the mail I had retrieved on my way in, and by the time I had freshened his water and filled his food dish, he was rubbing on my legs. I sat down and he put his front feet on my leg and, still talking to him, I gave him some pets. He acted like he wanted me to pick him up so I did. We sat quite a while with me petting and talking to him and him purring sweetly. Eventually, I sat him back down on the floor and he ambled over to the food dish and started eating, so I left. Guess we called a truce. As cats go, he's pretty nice.