"How often do we have to go through this? I love you, you silly furball, but do NOT try sniff at my cactus! I don't HAVE any shelves higher and I'm tired of pulling thorns from your nose!" -- Anon Guest
Some cats, every cat person knows, reserve their brain cells for specific purposes. When it comes to that specific area of expertise, they're absolute little fluffy geniuses. For everything else... their brains may well be made of sawdust.
Case in point, a Ginger tabby named Barnabus. Affectionately known as "short bus" to his human, Jamie, for reasons that quickly become obvious the longer you get to know the little fluffy maniac. This is a cat who startles when said human turns on the light at night because he's surprised by his sudden shadow.
This is a cat who loses his food bowl when he kicks his mess mat over the top of it. A cat who can literally get lost in a paper bag. His singular genius, however, is in finding ways to smell Jamie's cactus. Which, as smarter minds know, is a very bad idea.
When it came to getting close enough to sniff a cactus, Barnabus was a feline genius. He learned to push open doors. He could parkour his way to the most obscure shelf. The one time Jamie put the cactus in a hanging basket, there was an almighty crash and Jamie found hir cat dangling by his front claws and working determinedly to climb up for a sniff.
A sniff that always ended in a pained yowl, half an hour of plucking spines out of the cat, and no lessons learned.
The current safeguard was a high shelf and a hefty glass case over the prized potplant. A shelf way out of Barnabus' jumping distance, and isolated from all other furniture.
Other furniture that was arranged to allow Jamie to always have a view of the treasured cactus.
Barnabus climbed a curtain, stalked along the curtain rod, and perched on the very end of it. Butt wiggling and eyes focussed on the shelf with the cactus.
"Short bus, no-o-o-o..." warned Jamie, already rising from hir place to try and prevent another disaster.
The cat leaped. When telling it later, Jamie would swear that Barnabus only caught the shelf by the very edge of his claws and then 'spider-manned' his way up to his ultimate goal.
This time, he was saved by the glass case. It was too heavy for Barnabus to nudge off the shelf. Too solid for him to headbutt out of his way. Not that that stopped him trying until Jamie grappled him by the scruff of his neck and set him down on the floor.
Barnabus yowled in protest.
"Yes, I'm terribly unfair," monotoned Jamie. Ze was already thinking of another way to discourage hir cat from his endeavours.
When hearing these stories, people tend to ask why Jamie doesn't get rid of the cactus.
"And ruin the kitty enrichment?"
[Photo by Eslah Saad on Unsplash]
If you like my stories, please Check out my blog and Follow me. Or share them with your friends!
Send me a prompt [77 remaining prompts!]