The other day I was watching Marley. She was curled up in her favorite basket resting. She is a curvy girl and the basket could hardly contain all of her cuteness. Seeing Marley stuffed in the basket like that made me think about training her to do tricks.  If I could get her to sit on command or rollover or to high five, that would be impressive.  She has strutted around here for years as if she owns the place.  It is time for her to earn her keep.  Well, to be honest, she is our self-appointed neighborhood watch.  She diligently keeps up with the goings-on outside of our windows.  Maybe she considers that her full-time job.

I turned to YouTube to get the basics of cat training.  One of the first things that I learned is how well Marley has trained me to follow her simple commands.  When she sits on the floor and stares at me, it means she is tired and wants to curl up on my lap to take a nap.  She has trained me that she does not like her dry food bowl almost empty and will sit at the bottom of the stairwell looking up until I come down and fill it to just where she likes it.  (She eats wet food too but, it is complicated!) When she bumps my hand with the top of her head, she wants to be pet, and when she sits on my feet when I am busy, she wants me to be still.  When I am on the other side of a closed door she has a fit to be let into the room. When Marley comes to me, meows, and walks away, I know to follow her and take care of the matter at hand. 

Marley is actually my grandson, Kevin’s cat.  We visited the A Street location of the Delaware Humane Association on January 28, 2014. They took many cats out of the cage so that Kevin could interact with them.  The smallest one in the group, a beautiful 1 ½ -year-old Tabby, was the most aggressive in getting Kevin’s attention.  It worked, as he selected her to come home with us.  He changed her name from Runt to Marley.  Even though deeply enamored with Kevin, I often observed her watching me intently.  She seemed to notice that I was lacking in the culinary department and would leave tasty delights on our front porch.  I would try to remember to thank her for taking care of us but usually, I was too busy screaming for somebody to come and move the field mouse, bird, or other creature she left.  Kevin is now grown and out and about in the world. Marley misses him and often sits in his room as though she is waiting for him.  When he and his fiancé, Bella, come to visit, she cannot get enough rubs and hugs from them.  In Kevin’s absence, Marley has designated me as her person.   Though demanding at times, she seems to be in tuned to my moods and my emotions. Lately, she has taken to following me around like a shadow.

Now back to training Marley.  After watching Cat School on YouTube, we were ready.  If you ask me, my intelligent Marley should start in the advanced class.   She responds to her name and clearly understands, ‘No’ and ‘Out.’ Instead, not wanting to get ahead of ourselves, we started with the beginning series.  The first step involved getting her to follow my finger to get a treat that I placed on the floor.   This should lead to her following my finger to jump across my leg.  It started out so well.  Marley, the genius that she is, followed my finger to get the treat.  Each time she would come back to me ready for what was next.   Now we were ready to do the leg jump.  Like in the video, I sat on the floor with my foot on the wall.  Marley immediately came up to me to see what was going on.  She following my finger but would not go over my leg.   She would only go under it.  I went back to putting the treat on the floor to slow it down a bit.  Marley sniffed the treat but did not eat it.  Instead, she looked at me, turned around and, walked out of the room.  I kept calling her, but she kept on going, ignoring my calls.  I guess she chose to be a Cat School dropout.

After Marley left the room, it got very tricky.   I was still sitting on the floor with my foot on the wall.  I was wearing socks, and I could not get back up.  I kept slipping and sliding.  The hardwood floor aggravated my knees, so instead of turning over, I was trying to get straight up.  Darrel was downstairs watching TV and could not hear me calling him for help.   Nothing that I did worked to get me off the floor.  At one point, I looked as though I was playing leapfrog.  With my hands behind me instead of in front, I lost my balance.  I still could not get up.  Finally, I turned sideways and did a stiff-legged, crab-like downward dog, and I slowly pushed myself up.  What a work out I thought as I chuckled to myself.  Of course, I could have taken off my socks to stop sliding, but I did not think of that at the time. 

Today’s cat training was not a total success, but I will not give up on Marley.  I think she and I can do this if we are consistent and take it slow.  More importantly, I need to do several things to prepare for our next session.  First, sit on my mat when training Marley and keep a chair nearby.  Second, close the door so she cannot walk out of the room when she feels like it.  Third, train Darrel to lower the volume on the TV so he can hear and respond when I call him.    

It’s the little things,

Amanda 🐱

Update: A few days later Marley and I tried another training session. Jumping over my leg was still a no-go. I was smart this time. Darrel was in the room to take pictures and to help me get up off the floor. What a laugh we had when he kept slipping and sliding in his stocking feet trying to stand up. It is a good thing for both of us he was able to pull himself up using the door knob. 🤣😂

That’s all folks!