365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Sunday, June 23, 2024
A Difficult Concept - "Not Yours"
Day 254: It is a horribly difficult concept, "Not yours." Tippy understood it, and it was all I would have to say to keep him from getting into anything I wanted him to leave alone. I did not have to say it loudly or harshly. A simple, softly spoken, "That's not yours" was sufficient. I don't even recall that it was hard for him to understand as a six-month old kitten, but Merry is only eleven weeks old and still intensely curious about the world. I have effectively established some boundaries, but others are proving troublesome. I think his former people allowed him on countertops, but that is not permitted here. I've had to break out the spray bottle to reinforce my expectations, and if nothing else, he now knows exactly what it means even if he still pushes the limits when he's tired and feeling particularly mischievous. That said, "Not yours" is getting through to him. He watched the whole warp-winding process from the comfort of his paper bag with only a few attacks on the strings and swinging Gatorade bottles when the temptation was just too much for a small kitten-catten to endure.
Labels:
"Not yours",
Gatorade Method,
Merry,
weaving
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