Tuesday, July 04, 2006

House Rules





I am a horrible disciplinarian! There are not many rules at my house for my cat Kellie or my niece Shauna and they both take full advantage.

When Kellie was about a year and a half she learned how to open the cupboards in the kitchen and the bathroom, much to my chagrin. I wasn't pleased with the idea of her lounging on my plates, but by this point in our relationship she knew she was in control and any sort of discipline I tried to mete out was met with an indifferent stare. I have always hated when an animal is scared of a human, so I made a point of not scaring her or making her skittish, however I didn't want her sitting in my pots and pans! I tried to spray her with water whenever she got into the cupboards - it ended up I was the only one that felt bad. Kellie stared at me, but didn't move. I tried clapping my hands to chase her out of the cupboard. Again, Kellie stared at me, but didn't move. The only way I could get her out of the cupboard was to physically pick her up and remove her.

I was definately not the boss at our house. Finally, I put magnetic catches on the cupboards to keep her out. I rectified the situation, but failed at enforcing any house rules. Now she can't get into the kitchen cupboards, but she does open the bathroom cupboards and hide in there sometimes.

The fridge is another battlezone. Just yesterday I opened the fridge and Kellie rushed in grabbed a cherry by the stem and ran off. I was able to track her and the cherry to the bathtub and confiscate it before she managed to have cherry juice all over the floor. I usually only open the fridge door a couple of inches and blindly feel for what I want.

The other big battle we have is when I am on the computer. Whether I am on my desktop or my laptop Kellie is compelled to lie on my keyboard. It wouldn't be so bad if she could just lie on my lap, but no she wants to lie close to my face. She puts her bum on the keyboard and lies her head on my chest. This makes typing rather difficult. I don't know how many times I have placed her on the floor when she does this, within minutes there she is again, we keep up this game until she eventually wins and I end up trying to type with a cat between my arms. With the laptop, I sit in a chair in the living room and use one hand to type while she lies like a baby in my other arm.

What can I say - I lack any disciplinary skills. I guess we can all be thankful that I am not raising children. Yikes, can you imagine what unruly obnoxious kids I would end up with? At least with Kellie I am the only one that has to put up with her behaviour : )

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