About a week ago, after 16 days of snow, I decided we had to do something about our cabin fever. I would teach one of our cats a trick. Spicy the clown seemed the likeliest candidate, seeing as how she's always so eager for a treat of baby food.

I began with several short sessions a day, making sure the other two cats were not in the kitchen with us. (I wasn't about to hand out treats to them, with no tricks in return.) I'd coax Spicy to get up on her hind legs as I waved a spoonful of baby food above her head, saying "Sit up, sit up, sit up." The trouble was, her way of appealing to me is to lie down and roll over, so she was as likely to perform this maneuver as she eyed the spoon. Should I change my command to "Roll over"? Should I make it a joke--I say "Sit up," she rolls over? Not that anyone would ever get to see this trick, for Spicy's the shy one. But we have at least two more months of winter ahead of us, so I decided to stick to the program. We're now making great progress. I've added snapping my fingers to the command, and I can hide the spoon behind my back. More often than not, Spicy sits up, and she's even added a charming fillip: she puts her paw on my hand. In a day or two, I'll try it sometimes without the treat. But now there's a new problem. Every time I say, "Sit up, sit up, sit up," Bonita and Thistle come running into the kitchen.

Now how did they get trained so easily?

Copyright © Lynda Goldsmith
February 2, 2001