Madoc has been quite the jerk, this morning

[Siwsan]

Paw pummeling me awake up at 5:30. Ok, he made up for that with a kiss. Knocking things off of the mantel. Tipping an entire table over, scattering things across the floor, just to get to the treat jar.

Then when I reach frustration overload he does this, while in full purr mode.

[niyad]

1. "I'm soooooo sorry, Mom. But aren't I the most wonderful thing??"

[2naSalit]

2. Maybe he thinks...

You forgot how special he is as the first in the bunch?

Maybe he just wants some special attention. Mikey would be a jerk if he thought I was ignoring him when he wants snuggles. I decided that when he was bad, I would attack him with snuggles and pets... seemed to have a positive effect. Maybe that's all he wanted.

I am not having him come back here, at this point. His mom had surgery yesterday and an old friend has brought her RV and is staying for a few weeks to help out at the house, feed the horse and pets. I'll check in later today to see how things are going. I was stocking up on cat food but now I'll just go visit and take it out there. They won't have to worry about buying food for Mikey for at least a month. Mikey's other mom is supposed to be going home from the hospital by today so I hope all is well.

At least Madoc seems to apologize afterward.

[Walleye]

3. He's just doing his job, plus he has to make sure you still love him

Cats don’t have very long memories. Patches begs for food, I go to the kitchen and he’s like, I’m not really hungry I just need to know you still love me.

[AltairIV]

4. Cats, its a lifestyle.

Our Gojira has performed the exact same on us. Still when they give you that "look" it is impossible to stay mad.

[onecaliberal]

5. Sorry mom...

[wnylib]

6. Tipping a table over? Oh my.

Ember gets those moods. It sometimes sounds like Ember and Madoc were cut from the same cloth. But she has never tipped over a table (yet, anyway).

Ember does these things less often now, partly because she is mellowing as she ages, but also because I realized that my reaction seemed to encourage her to act out for attention. Even if I didn't say anything to her, if I sighed or if my body language showed annoyance, it seemed to give her satisfaction. It's as if it wasn't just attention that she wanted, but attention that caused me discomfort or frustration. I might be reading this wrong, or putting too much psychology into it, but it seemed like she was engaging in a power display of one upmanship. I'm the one who decides feeding time, gets the food, does the grooming (brushing her), comes and goes at will while she stays inside. So she seemed to be trying to take me down a bit by asserting herself in ways that annoyed me.

So, I started laughing when she knocked things down. I patted her head and then walked away like it was nothing. Cleaned it up later (if it was safe and reasonable to wait), and generally treated the knock it down habit as either amusing or insignificant.

She has toned it down quite a bit. Saves the knocking things down act for when she is especially annoyed, like if I'm late in filling her dish.

[MiHale]

7. Sometimes it's all the small actions in life...

that leads you to a beautiful moment. You captured that moment with this picture. May I dare say it’s one of the best of any of your cat portraits? The dark background with the green blanket frames Madoc perfectly.

Good morning, Siwsan

[Earthrise]

8. Ha! It sounds like the morning "ya-ya release" period -

A friend said he took his dog for a walk when the dog got restless to get his "ya-ya's" out.

My cat Daniel does pretty much the same thing every morning! Even if his food and water bowls are full, his litter box is okay; he has the company of our dog and windows to look out of to keep watch for the neighbor's cat (!) in his yard - he still loudly demands I get up.

He follows me into the bathroom and participates in tooth brushing. He's there when I let the dog out and back in. Then I must add a few kernels of food to his full bowl to show I'm paying close attention to the food supply.

After all this, he sprints up and down the hallway, climbs his scratching post, and jumps off a few times - until he gets his ya-ya's out. At that point, I'm so wide awake I can't possibly go back to sleep, and he jumps on a comfy chair and takes a nap.