Did I tell you I’ve been learning under? As in a kibble under a piece of paper. Too easy. Then a kibble under a little plastic dome. Not so easy.
Now it’s all about a kibble in a thing too small to get my nose into. Or my tongue.
See the kibble in that thing? It’s harder than it looks. Harder than the kibble under the little dome. That one you just shove along with your nose and eventually the kibble gets left behind and you can eat it.
The black thing took me ages to work out coz it isn’t slippery. It just sat there when I pushed it with my nose.
When I was totally mellowed out the pernickety old woman vacuumed up all my catnip that I have fallen in love with!!
This pic of me mellowed out before she did the vacuuming. See the leaves?
Why would she do that?
She said you’re not eating.
I didn’t feel the need to eat and she worries?
But last night she spread out a brown pillow case for me that had the rest of the catnip supply in it Tthat she had whip-stitched shut, she said. For me to spend the night on. Which I did.
This morning she took it away. To air it, she said.
What for? I like it the way it is. But anyway, she laid out the usual track of breakfast kibbles for me and I set off finding them, eating them along the way, and keeping body and soul together.
Guess what? I’ve lived here for four months and 25 days and I discovered this morning that the table on the balcony is quite an interesting place to be …
Quite a high place compared to where I usually sit and a good new angle to watch the passing parade of people down on the podium, going wherever they are going.
Foods that I like, so far …
Kibbles, kibbles, kibbles
Salmon in spring water
Salmon in olive oil, and sometimes smoked
Smoked salmon skin
Barbecued chicken, yum, bring it on
But I do not not not like smoked sardines, raw egg yolk, and I hate raw chicken.
Sachets of cat food are not my favourites either. And I will definitely turn my nose up at catnip flavoured treats.
Usually I can convince the old woman to turn off the TV by about 8.30, for a game or ten involving me getting kibbles for prizes.
We’ve given up on the eggbox, I’m happy to say. Yesterday she tied that horrible furry snake onto the end of a red wheeled thing that she dragged behind her, trying to get me to follow it and get the kibbles loaded onto the tray.
I soon showed her what I thought about that game …
So that night ended with her, after much cajoling, offering me kibbles by ones and twos first on her bare feet (not so scary) then on her knees, then on her hands (scary!) Though I did manage to eat more than half my bedtime snack.
Today was completely disrupted. The two wild human young came while their owner went shopping. The old woman spread the craft sheet over the floor and everybody cut things, glued, taped, then they went to the sink and floated a boat. All this while I hid under the couch.
After their owner fetched the young humans, the old woman tidied the room and rolled up the craft sheet. She’s always saying things like … Now then Moggy-mine, what mystery will we work on today?
Today she hid seven kibbles in the rolled up craft sheet. And after I found them she put in another lot. I don’t mind this game … I think it can lead to greater things. Imagine if she hid a handful?
(This is 29 seconds of me finding eight or ten kibbles. Ttoo long for you?)
We’re both sitting on the couch now waiting for the bedtime alarm. Well, she shuts me in the den then, whatever she does for the nect hour.
I started to scratch the couch to get her attention, it’s 8 PM, I need my playtime and she just keeps sitting watching her TV, why wouldn’t I try to get her attention?
And she sprays me in the face?!
I ran! Around the corner, into the corridor. Stayed there five minutes.
When I came out she’s still sitting there!
She invited me to sit on her lap?
So I line up to give the other couch arm a scratch.
She said, “Ahh!” In a hard nasty voice and showed me the spray bottle.
Now I’m sitting in the middle of the room. Not looking at her.
Me training the old woman is an ongoing project. My main drive is to get more food more often. The day after she went out for dinner was excellent. We had a new to me meat at lunchtime … when she fed me a couple of chunks … and at dinner time when I got some of the gravy as well as a few more scraps. Yum!
This is me the day before, cleaning the bag that the barbecued chook came in. Forgot to mention that delicacy. Seems to me she tries me on new things at lunchtimes.
So it’s very disappointing when there is nothing much in the middle of the day. Makes the day long and boring.
To my surprise the day she went shopping she brought home a thing she probably thought I’d love. Nothing is further from that feeling about the alien thing she expects me to interact with.
Rita de Heer 