Kitty in the dog house...with television!

One night last week, Maxie really upset me...I came home to find that she had somehow managed to pry open the drawers of my wardrobe (yes two of them!) where I keep, separately, my socks and smalls. The drawers were both nearly empty as she had pushed their contents into the space from which the drawers came from.

So I got home, received the usual exuberant greeting, "Daddy! Welcome home!!! I've missed you! Oooooooh, I've redecorated your wardrobe too! Come look, come look."

Speechless in frustration (it had been one of those days, and my arm had somehow developed an incredible pain at the elbow from nowhere) and frigid in anger, I yelled at her, making her jump. I remonstrated, how could she do this to me, giving so much more work for me to do! She cringed...visibly scared. My heart thawed, not enough to feel guilty, but enough to stop yelling. I grabbed her into my arms and nagged at her, and tossed her into Garfield's cage, for her safety: I didn't trust my temper not to hurt her.

Telling her to stay in there while I work my anger off...I went back to the room and moved her litter box and a shelf full of books to pull my wardrobe from where it stood, as I couldn't remove the drawers completely, in order to dig the clothing out from the abyss. Predictably, they were all dust-covered and I had to run a load of laundry at 1am in the morning. Thankfully she left me some in the drawer that I could still use....

Thus, kitty was in the dog house for a few days, no hugs from daddy; a punishment which she didn't really object to since she doesn't like hugs anyway, it was a win-win situation since I can't really bear to really punish her. I was angry though, so I wasn't feeling too huggy all the same...

Anyway, perhaps she felt there was something off with our relationship a few days in, and decided to make a play to regain my attention and affection. First, she started hanging out with me in the living room again (instead of walking off when I'm around) and then she started watching tv with me.

Kitty watching street fighter

I love kung fu films, daddy!

Feeling petty for arguing with a cat as the movie ended, I made her come nearer and gave her a final talking-to.

Yes, daddy?

"You know I don't like to be angry at you right, Maxie?"

"Yes, daddy. I'm sorry for making a mess."

Sowwie....

"Just don't do it again, alright? You know your dad's got anger and emotional issues," I chided, and she slunk away somewhere while I channel surfed after clearing the remnants of my lunch from my table.

Going through random channels, I heard her collar bell ringing as she scampered back into the living room to stare at the tv screen.

Ooh, Hello Kitty!

"Duh!" I said to her. "I'm not watching this with you!"

"Meow!!! Please please please, daddy?" she begged. Eyes luminous and hopeful.

I gave in...I've spent 2 days sulking so I guess I could give her some love now. We sat through 10 minutes of agony of kitty cartoon (thankfully it was on the tail end of the show) that featured some dodgy Hello Kitty remake of King Kong (the ape was replaced by a dog...could you believe it?).

The torture over, I decided to put in another DVD to while away the time, and we both settled down to watch the movie.

I love movies!

On a totally unrelated note, days after we made up, I had to go out to meet a shelter colleague to pass some stuff, so I opted to take Maxie out with me for a few minutes of sight-seeing.

Maxie in her "designer" carrier

She yowled and complained the whole way until she finally realized I wasn't taking her to the vet, at which point she quietened herself and "enjoyed" being outdoors in the relative safety of her bag. Kitty was nervous though and didn't take to the trip as much as I had thought/hoped she would. I did, however, take the opportunity to steal some snap shots of her watching the outdoors from within her bag:

I see and hear a lot of scary stuff!!!

Can we not do this again, please?

The moment we got home and I unzipped her bag, she leapt out and started rubbing all her favorite surfaces as if to ensure she's home properly....and settled to snooze in her shoebox.

So I guess that's all, folks!