When Joe came back to town (he is using my place as a waystation), he brought his two white cats with him. He brought them to the basement, where they promptly shot themselves up to the rafters and stayed for the better part of a week. One of them is still spending a good part of his time up there, though he does venture out in the evening, but the other got bored much more quickly, and has deigned to join the household.
Unlike her old house, my new place has a window above the kitchen sink. While she understands she is not allowed on the counters, she also understands she IS allowed to sit in the windowsills. And, she's decided the window above the sink gives her the best view of the backyard. I've been chasing her down to the floor, but yesterday morning, she decided she was right, and held her ground. I told her to get down; I even got out the squirt bottle and tried to squirt her down. She just hunkered down and glared at me. I finally picked her up and put her on the floor. It's amazing how much weight a cat can put into passive resistance when it doesn't want to be moved.
As soon as I moved away, she hopped back up there again, and looked at me as if to say she was within her rights when she went to perch on the sill. The fact that she had to pause briefly on the counter tops to get to the windowsill didn't count in her book at all, as long as she wasn't actually wandering around on them.
At that point, I conceded the battle. It's hard to argue with a cat who's convinced she's right.
Ah, come on Janice, in the big scheme of things, flexibility is a beautiful piece of grace. I don't think you're going to win this one anyway. Maybe there's a lesson in this for you AND the cat.
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