Yet another cat story

[telophase]

So my cat is utterly fascinated by the closet where the washer and dryer live, because it's got - OMG! - a closed door. Every time I do laundry, she rushes over to investigate. I don't like her jumping up on top of them, because she's *really* fascinated by the space between the dryer and the side wall, and the one time she got there, she was stuck for a while because the folding door doesn't open wide enough for har to get through. She tried to jump back up onto the dryer, didn't make it, then spent ten minutes whining loudly and trying to stick her head through the small space between the door and the dryer while MOm and I tried to get our hands in there, under her, to lift her up and onto the dryer. And then when we sat back to contemplate phoning the apartment office and asking them to send someone over to move the dryer for us, the cat realizes that hey! maybe failing to jump onto the dryer once was just a fluke! and jumped up onto the dryer.

So I'd rather not go through this again, and do my best to keep her from jumping on the dryer. This doesn't stop her from jumping *into* the dryer and investigating when I've got it open. That usually doesn't last too long, because getting socked with a handful of wet clothing isn't very pleasant, so she usually jumps right out again. Today she jumped in and sat down, defying my attempts to show her that I was filling the space with wet, cold clothing. Until I ran to get the camera, of course. *Then* she decides she doesn't want to sit in there anymore, oh no. Sheesh.

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[telophase.livejournal.com]

I feed my cat har daily treats (they're hairball preventative things) sitting on the couch so she's forced to come sit on my lap to do it, in the vain hope that she'll associate my lap with good things, but she stays precisely long enough to be certain that no more are forthcoming, then jumps down again.

[cawingcrow.livejournal.com]

Up until this recent time, there has only been one other time in our relationship that Kali has sat on my lap. When Mead first left her with me and moved to Canada in September of 1994 (I had known her for 3 years at that point and had insisted a year earlier that if he could ever not keep her, that I wanted her), she acted like a polite friendly visitor to my apartment.

When I went back to Maryland for a couple of weeks over Christmas Break, she changed her mind about the nature of our relationship and for several days after my return, she would jump in my lap when I was sitting in the chair in front of the tv for short periods of time. Then it dawned on me that she was claiming me as her own. Promptly upon my realization of this, she caught on and never jumped on my lap again until this latest spate of illness and stress over ten years later.

She has however, always enjoyed leaning against me as long as she feels I'm conscious enough to not toss and turn and after a few years, I finally caught on to the fact that she uses her tail to pet me, both when I'm petting her or when she decides I need a good petting. She's also used me as a paw warmer on really cold nights a few times--I couldn't figure out why she was laying beside me in such a strange manner (she is also the type to NEVER go under covers), then I realized all four paws were planted directly on my forearm and just about died laughing (which totally ticked her off).