I was holding our brown tabby boy Leo.  He was snuggled up in my sweater (he loves to get under), and purring.  Then as he fell asleep, the purrs started to stutter.  The further asleep he got, the more space between purrs, and the shorter the duration of the purr.

And I realized, I was hearing popcorn purrs.

It’s like when you make microwave popcorn, and the instructions tell you to listen to the frequency of the popping and stop when it is a second or so between pops.

With cats, it means you’re measuring the countdown from happy and awake to happy and fast asleep.

I like that idea – popcorn purrs.