Feb 2013 - Jump-itty-do-dah (3)

Bella is a good jumper. One of her favorite spots is on top of the fireplace mantle, a good 4 feet straight up, where it is extra cozy and warm.

The only restriction we put on Bella is not to hop on the kitchen counters (which she can easily do from the floor, even though the stools create great stepping stones). We use the "down" command. That seems to be working ok, but we are going to get a water spray bottle to reinforce that command.

She joins me in the office when I am computing. She likes to sit on my lap or under the warm desk lamp. She also jumps from the desktop to the bookcase top, again almost 4 feet. However, as she lands up there, she discovers all kinds of memento stuff--"precious" rocks we have collected on our travels, mini-robots from our robotics engineer brother-in-law, a model Prius, various awards. She has to do a last minute "dance" so that she or the stuff does not come crashing down. We'll add this is our off-limits area.

And she likes the top "story" of her carpeted cat condo tree. She leaps to the third story with no problem and sometimes lounges there. When she is ready to go elsewhere, she moves to the top level if she isn't there already and leaps a few feet to our bed.

In all these maneuvers, she is like a helicopter. She twists right and left to land correctly and doesn't really have to use her claws to dig in. It is so cool having a young cat again. She's athletic and, oh, so funny.

Today she is being her usual funny self. I moved all the tax papers onto the futon in the office where she likes to sleep. As I was typing this, she came in and plopped on the papers. So I moved them over to the side so she would have a cushier spot. But she decided she liked sleeping on the papers anyway!!