Thursday, March 23, 2006

Acorn - Chapter 3: Discipline

We decided early on that there really wouldn't be a need to have many rules for Acorn. Three seemed like all it would take.

Rule #1 Always Pee in the Litterbox - already covered this one

Rule #2 No Walking on Kitchen Counters or Table
(this is a good one for pets and humans alike) -

This rule didn't take right away. The kitchen counters lead to the sink and the sink holds various treasures to discover and lick and you can actually stick your tongue up in the faucet and get little drips of water!!! Feeling that this was a very important rule, I tried many different methods to discourage Acorn from getting up on the counters. Nothing was working and I was frustrated and then I read about the double-stick tape method. Apply some double stick tape to the counter where your cat likes to wander and her paws will stick a little to the tape and she won't like it and she won't get up on the counter again.

This sounded reasonable, safe, and do-able. I didn't have any double stick tape, so I thought that I would be clever and just make my own. I took a roll of packing tape and pretty much made giant loops of tape with half of each loop sticking to the counter and half with the sticky side up waiting for little paws. I was pretty proud of the whole piece of art and felt confident that this would work. Acorn waited for me to finish and then quickly jumped up to the counter, investigated, and stepped around every piece of tape. It looked like all my work was in vain, except for one final fate-ful step that changed both of our lives forever. I believe that we are both a little unclear on how this happened, but somehow Acorn did step on one piece of tape and in the quick move of unsticking her paw, the entire loop of packing tape came off of the counter, flew in the air and landed square on Acorn's butt. Cats do not like things stuck to their butt. She started running around the house (I believe she was clocked at over 60 mph) with a taped butt and half of the tape trailing behind her catching on anything that it passed increasing her paranoia. I was running just as fast apologizing and crying and laughing and trying to come up with a solution. Acorn would continue to try and out-run the tape and then in the cover of some dark corner try and frantically lick it off, which of course would just cause the tape to adhere more securely. Somehow, in the course of that dark afternoon, I did catch Acorn and managed to remove the tape from her butt. I don't quite remember how, but I think that is because I have repressed that particular memory. We have both undergone therapy and have chosen never to discuss this event with each other again

Rule #3 - Don't Go Upstairs - To Be Continued

3 comments:

middle aged blogger said...

I love it, I love it! And what a good method...we tried spraying water at our kitty and finally it worked but you have have wait and lurk to catch them in the act for that one to work!

thanks for the humor - I needed it today - (Mom was sick yesterday again... :))

Love MaB

Anonymous said...

Girl..your stories need to be captured in a book. I can not wait till Zach reads this. I love your expressive ways of articulating details that allows me to envision and experience what you are writing about. What a great talent and gift you have. THanks for blogging...I love to read, even though I don't always post.
Love ya girl

Gary Browne said...

Hard to type here on the floor (fell of the chair laughing), but that story was the best!! Note to self -- keep the tape away from Hunter and his kitty...