Care for a Refill?

I got to thinking...
Learning happens in all kinds of ways. From the time we are born, we process more than we could possibly imagine. Early on, crying is the effective means for attention, whether it be feeding time or some needed bathroom 'changes'.

Then as we continue to grow, we learn where the boundaries are through cause and effect...

Step into the road, and all hell will break loose!!
Schooling is a given, then friends and life relationships evolve into 'life lessons', but sometimes we are trained without even realizing it... from sources you are relatively unaware when or how it occurred.

What am I talking about?

I am the Alpha cat/dog in my house, yet I have learned to pay attention or suffer the consequences..

The cat:

When Scout wants to eat, she is very vocal. If ignored, she will begin her series of annoyances ending with jumping onto my mother's lap. Not a good thing. I get up and feed her.

However, it is currently 'advantage -owner' in relation to when breakfast is served.

She began scratching at my bedroom door and meowing at a pitch to wake the dead...at 5AM. Scout won.

I had a folding louvre-door put at the hallway entrance to the bedroom.

The dog learned that she could open it from the bedroom side by poking her nose into the center fold, but that didn't change the fact that for the 'cat on the outside wanting in', it was not possible to do the same thing because it only folded ONE way. I am victorious.

And in not too long a period of time, there was Scout back at the bedroom door scratching the carpet at 5 AM knowing full well that I would get up to end that annoying behavior. What??

She figured it out that if she poked her nose into the right side of the louvre doors from the outside

...she could squeeze through. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!! Advantage: Scout!

Well....Hell's bells! Who would have thunk that!!

I was forced to get even more creative. I had a 'hook and eye' latch installed on my side of the door. It solved both the dog opening it from the inside as well as the cat from the outside.

So far...Advantage: Me!

The dog:

Gracie has trained me to guard my coffee. Seems that she is very fond of the French vanilla creamer and she is not shy or sneaky about it. I have gotten up to look out the window for deer, only to turn around and see her sharing a bit of my coffee.

I took Flo to the bathroom, and when I returned everything looked normal. I glanced at my coffee and it had not been spilled. I called Gracie over for a hug to get up front and personal with her face.

Coffee Breath!!!

I have learned to cover the top with something or I put it on a shelf if I must leave it for a moment. So, this morning when it was very calm and quiet, and Grace was no where to be seen...I went tiptoeing around. She was standing on my bed finishing the last of the morning coffee from my nightstand. It is difficult to be angry with her. Other than being a coffee drinking escape artist from the side yard, Grace gives life some pizazz. She rides on Flo's lap while in transit in the wheelchair like a lookout on a pirate ship. And it is rare that anyone surprises us with a visit because she is perched on the bay window always watching or listening. How is it that she never runs out of energy?

Oh yeah, must be that little burst of caffeine working its magic!!