by Noella Noelophile™
The number-one way to guarantee that a cat will do something? (One of the few?) Two simple words:
“No, kitty!”
In our house, those words have preceded feline bounds onto the washing machine, small whiskered heads poking into the nearest dinner plate, and soft paws probing the computer keyboard and creatively rearranging a painstakingly-written document.
Problem is, our two current feline supervisors have the “angel cat” routine down to a science. We’ll return from a trip to the store to find half the draperies hanging precariously from our windows, a bowl in the middle of the floor, and our year-old black kitty, Jet, looking up at us in wide-eyed innocence.
“Mieuw?” (We can almost see her halo!)
One of the funniest recent episodes with Jet and her older sister, Snow, happened when each decided she wanted the center of a blanket we’d spread on the floor for them. They started tussling over the prime spot, rolling on the floor. Jet decided, at one point, she’d had enough of what Snow was doing. She pulled back, looked (older and larger) Snow right in the face and gave a fierce, “MIEUW!”
Well, somehow, fierce mieuws just aren’t very threatening. Snow looked at the youngster for a second, turned and walked away. We had the distinct impression that if cats could shrug their shoulders, she would have!
The cats are fascinating to watch, because their sibling rivalry seems almost human. They tussle, compete, meow at each other–and watch out for each other. One morning last week, I was in an hurry to get ready to leave, and had just finished dressing. Snow came over and began pawing at the closet door.
“No, kitty, you’re going to hurt your paw on that…”
She listened about as well as cats normally do, and kept pawing. Finally, I opened the closet door–and out came Jet, who had slipped in there without my knowledge. She fixed me with a stare and uttered a few choice mieuws!
So–my morning included one cat that just had to have her way, and another with total attitude after going somewhere she shouldn’t have been, in the first place.
Why is something that would be so frustrating with humans, so cute in cats?