Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The Battle of Wits with Vif


I was engaged in a battle wits with Vif, my rambunctious 6-month kitten.

He gets into all kinds of mischiefs but the worst is his obstructionist actions when I sit at the computer.  He would scratch the swirl of cables under the computer table.  I sprayed a bitter deterrent on the cords and cables but it did not discourage him appreciatively.  To stop him, I covered it with a few cardboard boxes so that he could not get at them.  This was more or less successful. 

Then, he learned to climb up on the printer next to the computer, creep into the space behind the monitor, and poke his paws out from under it to play with my hands on the trackpad and keyboard. It is difficult to read anything on the screen and impossible to write. If I chase him out with a loud “No” and a popping of a roll of newspaper, he would rush out and away but come back again, over and over, tirelessly.  The only way to stop him was for me to quit using the computer and do something else away from it.  But, if I sit on the sofa to read, he would come and jump on me and scratch or even bite me.

So, I read his obstructing action to be a scheme to induce me to play with him.  I thought his idea was to annoy me and force me to get up into action.  So, I would abandon the computer and play with him with a string, a stick, bits of paper, and a paper bag.  If I spent a long enough time playing, he would settle down and take a nap near me, usually on the floor next to my chair.  But if he is not fully satisfied and sufficiently exhausted, he would come back time and again to the tight space behind the monitor. So, I decided that playing with him in response to his obstruction was encouraging him to disturb me when I sit at the computer.  He would think at my using the computer was a signal for playtime.

I had to change my tactic.  To demonstrate that annoying me is futile, I decided to pick him up and put him in the bathroom with the door shut.  He likes to curl up in the wash basin and lie down in the bathtub, anyway.  I could then write in peace but when I let him out after a while, he comes right back to the computer and disturbs me.  Eventually, I learned to finish a bulk of writing before letting him out.   Returning to the computer, he finds me elsewhere.  Apparently, it’s not much fun. If I allow enough time, he comes out calmer and gets on the sofa to sleep. But quickly he learned to anticipate the incarceration and would fight viciously when I try to pick him up from the space behind the screen; I got scratched and bitten by forcibly grabbing him. 

So, nowI adopted a defensive strategy.  I put some large metal bookends and cardboard boxes to create a barricade behind the monitor.  It didn’t work.  He would step over it and push the boxes and manage to squeeze himself into the tight space.  I removed the barricade and filled the space completely with boxes of right size.  So prevented, he now sits on the printer and manages to scratch my hand on the trackpad and, otherwise, comes down to the front of the monitor and walks on the keyboard creating a havoc on the text I was writing. 

In the end, I capitulated.  The only way to keep him away from the computer when I want to read or write on it is to spend enough time playing until he is exhausted enough to settle down and sleep.  He is a darling when he is sleeping.

P.S.  I think I won.  Only three days after writing the above, I can say this.  Before I sit down at the computer, I’d play with him for a while  -- even just ten minutes rather than an half hour, and he is calmer.  If he climbs up on the printer, with a firm “no” he jumps down on his own, and then settles on the floor next to me or on the window sill; he sleeps or just rests.  So, now, he gives me ample time in peace in the morning and again late in the evening.  He is, however, exploring new tricks to annoy me.  He discovered climbing up on the kitchen counter; but, jumping up to the range when one burner was on, he singed a few strands of his whiskers, left and right, and he now decided to try only the kitchen sink.

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