Higher Ground

This morning was not the first time that Frankie tried to get on top of one of my cupboards in the living room. The black one, about 1 and a half meter tall, had a model of Deep Space Nine on top of it, for those of you who have been to my place. A while ago Frankie climbed up there and crawled beneath the model and I couldn't get him out without breaking one of the docking pylons off (watch Star Trek - DS9 if you have no clue what I'm talking about. It's a great show).

Next time he first climbed up another shelf and jumped over to the black cupboard, crashing with the momentum of the jump into the space station again. That was when I decided that I needed to find a new place for DS9 before more major damage occured. I put it on the high shelf in the living room (next to the remaining cacti) and it's safe there for the moment.

This morning I found Frankie on the cupboard again. Nothing dangerous up there I thought, so I let him be. After the usual sniffing around, he dove head first into the small space between cupboard and wall with his butt up high and rear paws holding on. He actually managed to climb out, I grabbed him, told him "no, not a good idea to go there, you'll never get out once you fall in there" and threw him down. Which of course only encouraged Frankie to run straight back to the top of the cupboard and stick his head down the wall again. Too bad my camera's broken, otherwise I'd have shot some nice pictures of him scrabbling around before he finally lost his grip and disappeared head first behind the cupboard. The room behind there is triangular shaped, the widest part being about the width of a cat's head, and the only way out is going up. Plus the space is filled with rolls of wrapping paper, on top of which little Frankie was now sitting.

I let him sit in there for a bit before dragging him out by the fur. Honestly, they must by now think this is the normal way for humans to pick up cats. I wonder why they still come to me. Must be the food thing.

It took Frankie about two seconds to recover. Then it was run-jump-stickheaddown again. This time I got a little bit mad at this display of learning resistance and I... well, let's not get into details. Suffice it to say that when we were done, Frankie was quietly sitting underneath my TV looking out.

But I'm sure as soon as I go out, he'll be up and behind the cupboard again. Then he'll be stuck there all day long and piss and shit on my collection of wrapping paper and I have to clean it all up in the evening. But I tell you, then it'll be bathing time!