...I need to make an icon of Suri, I really do.

[ysobel]

She is, I think, smarter than I gave her credit for.

So, okay. In the first few days, attempts to entice her with laser pointerage were met with "Honestly, you expect me to fall for that?" looks. I figured that she had figured out that the red dot came from the thing in my hand and therefore was not worth chasing.

Except then, if I got her in the right moods, she'd go nuts trying to get it. So maybe it was worth chasing after all.

Tonight?

Tonight, she stared directly at me, giving unambiguous attention-seeking mrrps. I, being a dutiful cat pet, went away from the computer so she could jump up on my lap, and made the clicks that I somehow came up with as a way to encourage her, and made the jump-up-yes-it's-okay taps, that she usually responds to.

Nothing; if she'd been human, she would have sighed. She gave up and went back over to her food bowl.

On a whim, I picked up the laser pointer and flicked it on, pointing at the floor. She immediately jumped on it.

And something in my brain clicked: it's not just that she's playing with the laser pointer dot, chasing and pouncing and trying to nom. It's also that it's a connection between the two of us: she knows that I am associated, somehow, with the dot that must be vanquished, and she can request it from me.

Why yes, as it turns out, humans /can/ sometimes be trained!

(Of course she then had to ruin it by disappearing into the kitchen and jumping up on one of the Forbidden Counters -- which she /knows/ is forbidden, because she did the "crap I've been caught" slinkysulk -- so no more laser pointer for now. Daft cat.)

Comments

[chemicallace]

Saga knows that the laser pointer is the source of the dot, so she used to find the laser pointer on the counter and knock it onto the floor when she wanted laser pointer time. The only problem was that repeatedly dropping the laser pointer onto the floor damages it and makes the dot less bright and more diffuse, making the whole thing less interesting and requiring a new laser pointer (and storing it in the drawer).

[azurelunatic]

It's things like this that make me want to clicker-train kitty pictograms or something.

[ephemera]

hee - hearing about you two developing your mutual language and understanding is a happy making thing :D