We don’t have the space for a dog, so we adopted a cat. It’s called Minnie, for some obscure reason. Not even logical in terms of character origin in a cartoon strip.
What I like about Minnie is when she shows a clean pair of paws (I can only see two when she disappears in the desired direction.) What I don’t like about Minnie is her waking pattern – is up every one hour after sleeping for three. Which means she chooses to surface amazingly close to meal times.
Last week, I decided to bring in a little more activity into Minnie’s life. I enlisted the services of a neighbor who had just trained her dog to FETCH!
Now, “FETCH” seemed like a good first milestone for the cat – you have to start somewhere. The neighbor agreed I think, because she saw in it a future as a cat whisperer. So we had Minnie who was the trainee, and Patchwork who was her dog and training assistant.
So here’s a clip by clip account of our first day at the training program.
Clip 01: Neighbor throws the stick, looks menacingly at the cat, and says, “FETCH!” The cat is more interested in Birdie Num-Num on the mango tree. Anyway Patchwork decides to retrieve the stick this time.
Clip 02: Neighbor dips the stick in cat chow, throws it a shorter distance and screams, “FETCH!!” – this time with looks that could kill. The cat looks at the stick for a micro-second and returns to her bird-sighting. Patchwork thinks he should retrieve the stick one more time.
Clip 03: Neighbor coats the stick with tuna juice and throws it real close, as an incentive. Cat trots up to the stick, licks it clean and decides to climb the tree this time. At this point, Patchwork thinks it’s time quit the training program.
Clip 04: Neighbor retrieves the stick and throws it a good 30 feet. She then glares at me and says “FETCHCHCH!”
Moral of the story: The next time you plan a training program, pick a cat whose name is FETCH. Works better as a noun than a verb. At least you’ll get a meow out of it.
Sharath Bhat
PS : I like cats that are invisible and not heard
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