Sunday, 26 July 2009

No paws on the table

Since Mitsi died, Toby has started being a lot more attention-hungry, hanging around the house more, wanting more affection.

He's also started jumping onto Dan's back.

Dan's always been Toby's favourite person (for which I bear Toby no ill will — Dan's my favourite person, too), and sometimes lately when Dan picks Toby up, Toby will climb up his arm onto his shoulders/back, and just hang out there for a while. Sometimes he'll even lie down, apparently completely unaware of his precarious situation.

And that's not all. Over the past couple of weeks, as Dan and I are eating our dinner and paying no attention at all to a hopeful little cat by our feet, Toby will jump — off the floor — onto Dan's back.

Toby: 'Whatchoo lookin' at?'

Odd, you say? Without a doubt. Having accomplished the jump to Dan's back/shoulder area, Toby will then try by any means possible to get to the food. He knows he's not allowed to sit on the chairs during dinner; he knows he's definitely not allowed to set paw on the dining room table at any time. But he's figured out that, for whatever reason, when he jumps onto Bearded Man's back and walks (trapeze-like) across his arm toward that tempting morsel of steak, for whatever reason, Bearded Man and Awesome Girl (I'm sure that's what he calls me in his mind) are too busy shaking with laughter to do anything about it.

Toby: 'Next time he tries to sneak a bite, I'm grabbing the steak'

Despite appearances, Dan was actually trying to eat his food rather than give it to Toby in this picture. Toby succeeded in swiping it with his paw, though, so Dan gave up and gave it to Toby to eat.

Sometimes I worry we're teaching that cat bad habits.

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