NaturallyResilient

About

I introduced Barney and Callie last week. This week I want to tell a story about Callie.

One evening, about two months after I brought these two home, Callie was sitting on my breakfast room window seat. The window was open with just a screen between her and the world. Outside the window, a stray cat walked by and all of a sudden Callie jumped through the window screen to get to him. It was then that I learned Callie loved a good fight. This incident also scared me, not because my clawless cat wanted to be involved in fighting (hey it was her choice to fight, and no I was not the one who declawed her) but because I had no control after they were out of the house. What if they were about to run into the street? It was time to teach these two their names or more precisely, to come when I called them, especially if they were going to get loose.

I took them both outside with some cat treats. Callie caught on real fast. Barney took more work.

I was so impressed with Callie that I taught her to come, and stay! I could just you hand signals and she obeyed!

Callie had another unusual quark, she loved water. She would even get in the shower with me while I was showering! She also loved drinking out of the sink faucet and would jump up on the vanity in the bathroom whenever the water was running. This became a problem. I had contacts and insisted on a hairless, dander free area as I dealt with them. At first I would use the stay command to tell her she was not welcome, then after dealing with the contacts I would say “come” and she would jump up. There were a few times when I was through with the contacts but had not given the all-clear command and she had jumped up anyway. I also noted a couple of time when I started working on my contacts when she was not in the room, then she would come in and my hands were busy so I was not able to do the hand signal that went with the stay commands, but she would stay grounded until I was through. I started thinking about the whole thing, it was like she was reading my mind. I then noticed that I tensed my back when she came in while I was working my contacts. When I was through my back relaxed. Callie wasn’t reading my mind she was reading my body language and acting appropriately! I was able to stop with the commands altogether and just use my back muscles. She was able to read my energy through my clothing!

Even though Callie was easy to train, there was one battle that Callie finally won involving the top of the refrigerator. I do not allow the cats on any food preparation or serving areas. However Callie loved to be on top of the refrigerator to survey the happenings in the kitchen. But to get there she had to jump to the kitchen counter first. I fought with her on this for several months. We finally came to a compromise. She could only get on the small section next to the refrigerator and only to jump to the top of the refrigerator. This has been the only time I have compromised with one of my cats about one of my hard and fast rules.