Legal Interpretation

Day 106: Skunk should have been a lawyer. She and Tip both know that cats are not allowed on hard surfaces in this house...no cats on counters, no cats on shelves, no cats on the desk or the kitchen table. It is a prohibition I established with them when they were both very young, and it's only been breached a few times, generally with good cause. For example, Tip cannot resist a receipt printed with soy-based ink. He will steal them off the kitchen table regardless of the consequences, so I just don't leave them there.

On the other hand, cats ARE allowed on soft furniture. They can sit in any chair, sleep on the bed, share my pillow, or sit on the covered lid of the toilet while watching me bathe. Soft, good; hard, bad. That's easy.

Since my bobbin lace bolster is quite heavy and cumbersome to use when I'm seated in an arm chair, I like to put it on an end table which I can draw up with one leaf extending over my knees. In order to tilt the bolster toward me, I set it on a rolled-up microfiber blanket and pull it forward so it rests at a slight angle. The blanket keeps it from slipping off the table as well. When I am done with a session, I put the bolster on top of the harpsichord and tuck the table underneath. Today, I neglected that last step before I went to town.

In Miss Skunk's eyes, that blanket-covered table fell under the definition of "soft furniture," and you have to admit, her logic couldn't be faulted. She's accustomed to using the blanket or one like it as a bed. Obviously, I had put it in a new location specifically for her to try out. Any argument I could have presented would have been thrown out as invalid, so I just grabbed the camera, inextricably bound to honor the set of rules I'd laid down.