10.12.10

No breakfast upset this morning ... because I didn't even try.

After getting to sleep around midnight and waking up around 3:00 a.m., I think I've earned a one-day pass on trying to harness the cats for a breakfast introduction. However, Big Yellow Hallway Monster does now smell like pickles.

"Smelling like pickles" is a 3-word phrase with a lot of history around here. Back in the day, it became painfully obvious that Electric Mayhem and Big Acoustic Kitty were never going to get along. In an effort to curb some of EM's psycho behavior, we had to resort to a spray bottle full of water. It helped, but not much. So then we added a little bit of white vinegar to the water. Not enough to hurt her if she got it in her eyes, but just enough that the smell would put her off. After one particular dousing, she dried herself off and came sneaking back to cuddle up to her papa ... who sniffed her and said, "she smells like pickles."

Have you seen the t-shirts for dog lovers that read, "It's all fun and games until someone ends up in a cone"? We keep saying we're going to make one up for ourselves that reads, "It's all fun and games until someone smells like pickles." Nobody would get it but us, but that's okay.

BYHM, pissy-pants alpha that he is, has developed a bad habit of whacking at EM while they're waiting for me to finish fixing their breakfasts. He's always a little possessive of the food dish area, but breakfast time is the worst. I've taken to shutting him in the downstairs bathroom so EM can whine about starvation in peace. He's actually gotten pretty good about going into the bathroom and then staying there to eat his food. But, this morning I was out of it and he wasn't behaving, so when he went to smack his sister, I squirted him with the water bottle. Not a happy kitty, that one. But, breakfast did get much less punchy.

I know the negative reinforcement techniques should be used sparingly, but while BYHM is responsive to some positive reinforcement techniques in other areas, he's not giving up his need to run the other cats off from the food dishes. So ... pickle water it is.