Another episode of the pet ownership follies

[layla]

Poor little cat. I'm turning into such a bitch where he's concerned. It's gotten to where he develops a nervous look when he sees me coming. On the other hand, *I* think I have perfectly reasonable expectations from my pets: all that I ask of them is that they don't hurt me, don't destroy my things and, when I order them to stop doing something, they stop and don't resume again. You'd think it would be very simple to stay on my good side. The dogs do it with no problem. The cat ... well, it's a different story. The thing I really wish I could get him to stop doing is sinking his claws into people. By "people" I mean me. One of his favorite games is to sneak up on my feet when I'm sitting in my computer chair (I usually either have my legs crossed -- so the feet stick out either end -- or have one foot under me and the other one hooked over and dangling) and jump up and sink his claws into the sensitive part of my foot. I think he thinks he's just getting my attention, the little bastard. It gets my attention, all right. Last night I was petting him on my lap and, appropos of nothing, he reached up and whacked me in the nose with his claws out. You ever have a cat claw get hooked in your nostril? He took a flying trip across the room for that little stunt.

Yesterday while I was at work he also chewed up my favorite pair of headphones. Again. (Orion fixed them the last time. They still work, but the earpiece is all gnawed on.)

The last straw, really, is that the cat and the dog wake me up every morning wrestling (he sits on the bed by my head and plays with the dog, which is very difficult to sleep through, although Orion seems to manage just fine). And I can't shut him out of the bedroom because when I do, he keeps me awake trying to claw his way back in ...

Maybe when summer comes, he'll expend his energy outside ... I suspect a lot of his misbehavior is just boredom ... but man, is he driving me crazy.