Teaching an Old Cat a New Trick

That Parker has had an influence on the perma-cats here is undoubted. But some of his effects have been unexpected.

The topography of every home is different, and the ways cats adapt to that topography can be interesting. Josie’s favourite room is the bedroom. She spends most of her time there. She is certainly not afraid of Parker or any other cat; she does roam the other regions of the apartment, but I think she simply does not find a need for the other rooms. My Chubs lies on the bed (she has different parts of the bed on which to lie, depending on her mood) and the saddles of the cat-tree.

To travel from the bed to the cat-trees sometimes depends on the position of the chair at my desk. If it is pulled out, Josie first hops onto the chair and then over to the cat-trees. I frequently pull the chair back for her to use, if I see that she wishes it to bridge the distance from one spot to another.

If the chair is not pulled out, she will climb down from the bed, using the steps at its foot, then walk over to the cat-trees and climb up to her preferred level. She makes this seem a laborious procedure. I think she is like the koala, and descends to the floor only when there is no other choice.

Enter Parker. My foster-boy, from the first, found his own way to move from the bed to the cat-trees (though, in fact, he largely eschews the trees and goes straight to the window). He uses the desk as a platform by which he crosses to the ledge under the window. Clearly, Josie has seen him do this several times, and has now decided that there is some merit to this method. I had my suspicions one day when I came home from work and found what seemed to be cat-litter powder in front of my computer-screen. Parker had been in the library the whole day, so he was blameless in this matter. The mystery was solved when I saw the Great White exercise her new option later that evening.

This route causes me no inconvenience and, while I have witnessed Josie hesitate to use it, probably due to worry that she will fall off the desk as she walks, there is little danger in it. I have to give credit to her for learning, even at her age. For her, an old cat can truly be taught a new trick.