Thursday, October 5, 2006

Kitty Kitty



Hey! Who’s that in the picture?! Meet Meow, the new kitten of the Steingruebl household.
Two weeks ago, Elise fell in love with a stuffed kitty at the Children’s Discovery Museum when she was there with Daddy. We found this little beauty at Target the next weekend, and now Meow goes with us everywhere.

Luckily, Teri Bear seems to have a pretty thick skin. (Maybe it’s that her fur is well-matted after many a turn in the washing machine.) She doesn’t seem to mind sharing Elise’s affections with Meow.

Meanwhile, the living, breathing “meow” of the household has been having some adjustment issues. No destruction, but she’s become a real pain. We leave the bedroom door open at night so Flapjack doesn’t claw the carpet to get in, but then she cavorts around the room at all hours.

We play with the kitty, we snuggle the kitty, we take good care of the kitty’s physical needs, we give the kitty oodles of toys. Near as we can tell, she’s just desperate for even more attention and proof that she’s more beloved than that horrible Elise thing. It’s not gonna happen, so we’ve been looking for coping strategies and behavior modification tools.

Soooo...reprimands and spray bottles don’t work because they grant the kitty the much desired attention. We’re not getting a lot of sleep these days, (oh yes Flapjack-we’ve noticed you!) and it’s getting hard to think clearly on this matter. We’ve placed our order for a scat mat, and we’re hoping that will help solve some of our “territory” issues.

Gentle reader, if you have any suggestions for modifying the behavior of a willful kitty, please leave a comment or drop us a mail. Our sanity may well hang in the balance!

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