Let The Games Begin

Today we have a Rocky story. You see, Rocky has us both wrapped around his little paw.

And it started innocently enough. He will cry at the top of the stairs, as if to tell us that he can't remember where his food bowl is. So when we go to see "what's wrong", he will rub our ankles, nibble on any accessible and vulnerable toes, and then down the stairs one of us will trudge, just to show him his bowl, which in all likelihood, already has food in it.

Once downstairs, there is the obligatory rub around the ankles again, and he jumps up to his counter - better yet if he's picked up, and he's shown the bowl. He likes that. He purrs. Rocky rarely purrs. And we do it because he doesn't like to be touched, unless he is hungry or sleepy, and this is one of the few times he seems to actually like us, and he seems truly happy.

He's got some other funny quirks too. To set this up, the cats have one of those food dishes that is made up of two food bowls, and we always make sure there is kibble in both. We make the assumption that the two cats can eat at the same time if they like, or choose whichever bowl has the most kibble. Seems easy enough. Apparently that's not the way it works.

Rocky will only officially acknowledge the food in his right bowl. Actually both cats will eat out of the right bowl. He ascertains that the kibble in the left bowl is no good. But you can just take a handful of kibble from the left bowl, and put it into the right bowl, that kibble is now okay. He can eat that kibble out of the right bowl. But a good kitty must not eat out of the left bowl.

So that's the way it is.

But there's a new twist on this little game. Today, Rocky was crying at the top of the stairs. All right. Down Larry goes to show him his kibble.

But something is different. There's no ankle rubbing. No nibbling toes. You see, a certain other cat, our Petey, was busy in the litter box. Rocky cried, as if to say, "Make that cat get out of the litter box."

Note that there is another litter box there. But Rocky apparently wanted the litter box with the cover. Not the uncovered litter box. And the chosen box was being defiled, right when he wanted it, and he wanted Larry to do something about it. Now.

Of course, Larry didn't do anything about it. As far as he was concerned, Petey had about as much right to use the litter box whenever he wanted - that you gotta do what you gotta do. Besides, there was another one right there.

It could have ended right there, however, as if to say it was okay to Rocky, Petey finished up right then, and exited his temporary domain.

And in Rocky's eyes, it worked. He had brought Larry down to get Petey out of the coveted box, and sure enough, Petey got out. I can just see where this is going. What began as a simple food game, is now becoming something of a problem.

And if you know something about cats, and they don't like their litter situation, they might just leave a certain present for an unsuspecting person to step in.

And now a rather unpleasant precedent has been set in our household, and Rocky knows he has the upper paw.

Contributed by Jamie Naessens