"You're trapped now," he said, humming a laugh and making abortive movements to tug the blanket out from under his own ass. "If you want to just sleep up here, she'll probably stick with you for awhile."

And give Kira's ribs a break. He had bruises that were entirely from small sharp paws walking over him in the night.

His tug at the blanket rolled several items into Casey's hip, its edge trapped under him as much as Kira: "She'll settle back in if you move her, don't worry. She just wants a warm body to sleep on." She wasn't the only one, and Casey at least seemed to understand the boundary of it.

When he didn't share, Casey tended to wind up on the floor.