I am surprised about how strongly habits are ingrained in the boys, even when they are not in their best interest. Three examples:

1. Fred and I switched sides of the bed 1 1/2 years ago. Otis *still* jumps up on my old side, walks on Fred's head and wakes him up, and then slips under the covers on my side. This is not in his best interest. Fred: "Otis, you little sh*t! That d*mn cat should be locked in the basement at night!"

2. They will only drink out of one water dish in the ensuite bathroom. Chester sleeps in the basement at night due to his 4:00 AM party habits so is separated from the water all night. Even if I put tantalizingly fresh water out downstairs in the same kind of dish that he uses upstairs, he won't use it. He races into the bathroom in the morning and drinks the entire bowlful. Otis does the same thing.

3. We put up a new tall white fence last summer. It was up for all of two weeks before I noticed that it was covered with muddy cat feet prints from the boys jumping up and down the 6 - 7 feet to get in and out of the yard. We cut little cat holes in the bottom of the fence so that they wouldn't have to jump up. Otis also had a sore foot for a few days when we did this. I tried to show Otis how he could use the holes by getting on the other side with an open can of wet food. I put it right under his nose on the other side of the fence. He was so excited that he jumped up 7 feet, came down the other side on his sore front foot, and came to the food. His nose had been 2 inches away from it through the hole. Thank goodness we cut the holes after only two weeks of the fence or he might never have learned to use the shortcut.

I'm sure there are other examples.

Copyright © Susan Mawdsley
February 23, 2001