2 years ago we decided to lock all the downstairs windows at
night – thus keeping out the bully neighbourhood cats that came in to the house
to steal Bracken’s food and beat her up if she happened to be having a midnight
snack. At that time she was 16 years old and no match for some of the local
thugs. She was in fact quite terrified and becoming a bit withdrawn.
The one problem we faced was with battening down the windows,
was that she refuses to use a litter box – flower beds are the only things she will
use for her toilet. But, within about 4 days she had trained us to respond to
her standing with her front paws on the bedside table as a sign that she wants
to go outside. If the response is not fast enough, a gentle tap on the head usually
does the trick and gets us moving. Whoever has been chosen as the toilet maid
for the night has to get up and go out into the garden with the little cat
whilst she has a drink out the birdbath and then heads for the bushes. Then,
with much ado about ‘what a clever girl’ and little pats, it is back to bed for
the 2 of us. (NB: whilst writing this I realise that I am the toilet maid 99%
of time – hmm)
In case you think this happens every night – it doesn't If
we get the timing right pre-bed time when we take Bracken out for a last pee,
she can usually last until I get up at about 5.00….but now that she is 18, the
night can sometimes be a bit long.
She also has me trained, when it is raining, to stand in the
middle of the lawn with a large golf umbrella. She dashes out, stands on my
feet and we shuffle to the edge of the flower bed where she does her business;
then we do the shuffle back to the front door…thus achieving the least amount
of rain splatter on the kitty back.
Now for the conniving kitty part:
Lately, when we take her out pre-bedtime, she just might not
want to do a pee. But because she doesn't want us to know this, she dashes into
the bushes and almost immediately exits about a metre from where she went in,
hangs around for a little pat and praise, and then bolts inside. Because we cottoned
on to this little trick, she is quite happy when we give her a little nudge
towards the bushes again – she repeats the performance and comes out looking
all pleased with herself and bolts inside and upstairs.
And we think they are just animals.
