She sleeps a lot, but at night her mood varies. She will stop sleeping with me for weeks and then do it every night for awhile. She really dominates her (our) side of the bed, much to Mary's displeasure. Mary gets up to move Ally so Mary can move me and have more of the bed to herself. I prefer to adjust to Ally and to Mary. Ally also spends her days asleep on the bed in the guest bedroom (as in the photo here). She shares it with Dakota, who isn't supposed to get up on the furniture but waits until we leave to sleep with Ally. Ally also sleeps on the couch in the living room during the days, watching everyone else sleep below her as her lowly peasant population.

Ally often climbs on may lap in the sunroom to help me read the newspaper or a book or watch football games, although I cannot cheer too loudly or enthusiastically unless I want to risk being bit or Ally jumping down angrily. The photo above catches an Ally "look" if I am moving when she doesn't want me to. I am required to be very careful while Alley sits there. Any sudden moves and she can become quite expressive with her teeth, using them to object when I move someway she doesn't like. Ally usually doesn't bite hard, but she makes her point, if you get my drift. We nap together in the chair more and more often, as we age together.

You can get some sense of her feisty nature by looking at these pictures. She mostly refuses to stare into the camera. However, Ally likes (or maybe dislikes less) Shawnee and Pawnee more than our previous cats, Calvin and Hobbes, probably because she was here and the alpha cat when the new kittens arrived and so they pay her proper respect. Ally, who was probably 6-to-9-months old when Mary found her, is the most aloof of the pets and does not really pal around with or play with any of them. She is indifferent to the dogs. The dogs give her a relatively wide space to pass by.

Mustang Ally was named after the Cal Poly Mustang mascot where she was found, after TVs "Ally McBeal" and after Muhammad Ali because she likes to hear me chant "Ali boomayeah" (or however you spell what the citizens of Zaire cheered during "The Rumble in the Jungle."

She likes the backyard, but will only walk on the bricks. Grass must be beneath her dignity. She also has a very special way of demanding her food -- standing where her food bowl should be and scratching the nearby bookshelf until someone responds. When she is done, she will allow the other cats and Dakota to eat out of her bowl. While they eat, she likes to sleep in a cardboard box near her food bowl. We cannot explain it, but she has always liked to have a personal box to rest in.