Friday, February 12, 2016

2/12/2016: Resolutely resolute

All the cats know they're not supposed to go on the cubbies in the dining room, the dining room table, the kitchen table, and the kitchen counters.  They know this, but they do not care.  We're constantly chasing Clinch off of all of those things.  We've yelled, we've made other loud noises (usually while we're yelling), we've squirted, we've shooed, we've poked (sometimes with things like a remote control if he's out of reach), and we've bodily lifted.

Some days it's a constant struggle, especially when he finds new places to go.  A few nights ago, while I was up reading and Steve was sleeping, Clinch discovered the top of our games cabinet where we have Steve's hourglasses and a few other breakable items.  I got him down, but he knocked over a glass vase at some point while he was walking around.  I'm glad it didn't break, mostly because I don't want him hurting himself.

The next night, I was lying in bed reading while Steve was watching TV, and all of a sudden Steve comes in with the kitten.  Clinch got plopped down on my chest, and Steve said, "Talk to your son!"  "Hi, baby!  Mama loves you!"  "Talk to him sterner," Steve said.  In a lower, sterner voice, I said, "Mama loves you."  Turns out Clinch had been up on the games cabinet again.  Steve decided to put up guard sheep (plush Settlers of Catan toys) with a Han Solo bobble head we recently received lying in wait:



You're not going to believe this, but I just heard a noise while typing that last paragraph, right before I uploaded the picture.  I went to investigate, and...


Han Solo and those sheep are really crappy at their job!

I wish I had been recording a video, but I took a number of pictures:

Sheep down!  Sheep down!



...and he's down (after knocking over the decoration).  I put the sheep and decoration back up, leaving Han Solo out in the open so maybe he can protect the cabinet better next time.


We had a guard sheep up on the top of the bookcase in our bedroom, too, since Clinch had expressed interest in jumping up there.  However, I found the sheep on the floor this morning, so it is also crappy at its job.

This wasn't even what I was going to write about today.  Back to that subject, so you can see how truly resolute our boy can be.

I boiled some eggs this morning.  Yes, such a thrilling life I lead.  They were ready to be cooled off, so I went into the kitchen to do so.  I found this waiting for me:


This is new.  I tried to reach him to pull him out, but there's a reason we have nothing back in that corner, as you'll see in this video:


I'm glad that he's easily distracted.

However, not three minutes later, as I helplessly watched from the bathroom (yes, I leave the door open when I'm home alone!), he was back up on the counter.  By the sounds of it, he was checking the eggs out.  I yelled, "Clinch!  Get DOWN!" but it was of no use.  Right before I walked into the kitchen, I heard a loud "THUMP" which means he decided to get down before I chased him down.

And what is he doing now?


Ah, he's so cute when he's doing what he's supposed to do!

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

2/1/2016: Clinch's magic carpet ride

One of my first posts in this blog was about Clinchfield's fascination with messing up the bathmats.  If you missed that or need a recap, you can catch up here.

A few nights ago Steve and I were getting ready to go to bed, and I noticed that Clinch had messed up the mats again, but this time instead of pushing them both against the wall, one of them was sticking out in the hall.  That was new, and while we pondered it, Clinch walked up and plopped down:


He didn't budge as I walked around him, taking pictures.  He didn't even twitch when I turned on the light to get this slightly blurry picture:


Steve decided to see what would happen if he straightened the mat out with Clinch on it.  Would he jump off, or would he enjoy the ride?  Let's take a look:  (The video was done with my phone, so if you want to hear the few things said, you'll have to turn your speakers up a lot.  Sorry about that.)


It was nice of him to point out that the other mat was disheveled, too, wasn't it?

"Thanks for straightening things out, Papa!"

Since then, I've had to fix the mats no less than four times.  He sure likes to keep us busy!