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.