I won't be boxed in

I made this box tunnel for Smokey a while ago but he rarely enters it. I have to coax him into it by leaving toys or treats inside. On this occasion, he went in on his own. 

Fairy cat

whispering whiskers...

Get in the box!

I have to admit that one of the reasons I became enamored with cats is because of internet meme Maru. Maru loves boxes! What about Smokey? Not so much. We had to bribe him to get into a box. 

Smokey, look behind you. We put treats in the box.
... jumps in the box and eats treats...

 "Yum."

"Now what." 

I wanted to get better pictures of Smokey in the box so I tried to bribe him again the next day. He was much smarter this time. See him size up the box. 

Next he marks the box with his whiskers.

And starts bumping the box with his head to see if he can knock it over.

He decides that pulling it down will be more expedient.

Box downed!

Now, I thought he was such a clever kitty for figuring out a different way to get food out of the box, but he walked away without touching any of the treats.

He returned to the box a few minutes later, having sniffed out the treats again.

"Where are those treats I smell?"

"Are they under this part of the box?"

He finally figured it out and walked over to the other side to scarf down his desired treats.

Mission accomplished!

Can you walk a cat? Part 3: The humiliation!

I mentioned to one of my friends that I was training Smokey to walk in a harness and she was flabbergasted. "How humiliating!"

I hadn't thought about it that way, but she is right. Before we purchased the harness and leash, we let him out into the hallway to wander about. Much to his dismay, we followed him out because people coming in and out of the building might inadvertently allow him to escape. He was very confused and looked askance at us: why were we following him?

Seriously, this cat survived the freak derecho storm and heat wave with nary an ounce lost from his stocky frame. He doesn't need supervision. He can get along fine on his own.

The conclusion at this point in our training is that Smokey dislikes the harness after all. Put the harness on him and go outside, and he starts walking funny. He crouches down and drags his hind legs behind him as if he wants to slink away into some hole to hide. Let's face it, how could he let those fancy lady cats see him so restrained? The humiliation!

Early to bed...

Smokey works on a different time schedule from us. He's all about early to bed and early to rise, so can we really blame him when he wakes us up at 5 AM? Here he is just before midnight at the door to our bedroom:

"I'm falling asleep here. When are you guys going to bed?"

He bites

Around the time that Smokey found his bed, we began to notice a change in his personality. Well, maybe not so much a change in personality as much as another side. Smokey has become just that much more comfortable in our home.

Much less cuddling on the couch. Much less patience with our petting. No more purring. More demanding of food. And now he bites our toes. 

Yes, he bites. The cat we once thought so docile, so perfect for when we have children, bites. I'm not entirely sure what for. He bites our toes when we sleep. It doesn't seem to be out of aggression...so it must be playfulness? He does not bite hard and sometimes I even mistake his rough lick for a bite. 

Omigod!

(with apologies for poor photo from my phone)

Standards of cleaniness

Early on, Smokey was a big fan of the couch. He readily hopped up for a nap or a cuddle with his human caretakers. But somewhere in the past month or so, he stopped. We thought maybe he didn't love us anymore. 

Then, this past weekend we laundered our couch cover. The moment I finished pulling and stretching at the cover onto the couch, Smokey leaped into one corner and promptly fell asleep for a nap:

Does that mean Smokey has higher standards of cleaniness than we do?!

Little man

Can you walk a cat? Part 2

One of the things that the walk-your-cat training guides sometimes leave out is that you don't actually walk cats. Or, you don't walk cats like you walk dogs. The leash and harness is not for you to communicate with the cat like you would a dog. The cat leads himself and walking is actually more about meandering and sniffing than exercise.

The trickiest part is that cats don't prefer sidewalks. Our cat, at least, wants to go into the bushes and under cars. Basically, where you can't follow.

Unfortunately, I failed to mention these essential things about walking cats to my other half so he was very disappointed with his first cat walking experience. It probably didn't help that he took Smokey out at night. We have mostly been training him at night because that is when he wants to go out, but I wonder if things will be different during the day? Stay tuned for the next part in the series.

Can you walk a cat? Part 1

Just a week after Smokey returned home, he was raring to head back out. You may have noticed from some of the previous blog posts. He slept during the day, but at night he would be meowing to go out.

I felt bad for him because he used to lead such a carefree life, coming and going as he pleased, enjoying the fresh outdoor air. At the very least, I thought, we could let him go outside, with supervision since we didn't know if he would run away again. And so I embarked on a mission to train Smokey to walk in a harness. 

When you read online guides to training cats, you will notice that the training generally involves familiarizing the cat with the new thing and making him think whatever you want him to do is a good idea. With cat walking, this means leaving the harness and leash around so that the cat thinks their presence is normal. I left the harness and leash laying around and even rubbed them on his whiskers so his scent would be on them. He liked batting his harness, too, if I dangled it in his face. 

The next step is getting the cat to wear the harness for incrementally longer times. We had no problem getting Smokey to wear his spiffy yellow collar, so I assumed the harness would not be an issue. Turns out he does not like TWO things around his neck. But then you feed the little guy treats and soothe him so that he thinks it's not such a bad thing after all. (More on food bribing in another post.) Then you do the same thing with the leash attached. 

Smokey is such a mellow cat, the first two steps took no time at all. So, how was the actual cat walking? Stay tuned for part 2!

I want to go out!

"Why don't you just let me out?"

But, Smokey, what if you don't come home or get run over by a car?

"What are you talking about? How would that happen?"

"Dammit. You're not going to let me out."

I don't like vacuums.

For a cat who survived by himself in the wild for three weeks, Smokey can still be a bit of a scaredy cat, especially when it comes to loud noises.