Can cats go through a teen phase? Because I am pretty sure the previously well behaved Chip (though always a little touched in the head being the extra skeered runt of the litter), is in full blown teen mode.
Chip is my bathroom cat. He lurves the sound of water so much that his favorite place to be is in the teensy tiny toilet room in my bathroom. Better yet is the shower itself though I try my best to keep the door closed to prevent him going in there and lapping up the oh so clean (not) drain water thereby inducing cat vomit trails three feet long.
The toilet room is small though, right? So when I go in there and find him lounging on the bathmat in front of the toilet, I shoo him out.
When I shoo him I say “Skitty kitty!” (I know, too cutsie by half. Sue me). Shorten it often to just “skitty!”. After a couple of times saying that and gently nudging his rear, he learned and all I had to do was say “skitty” and he’d move without the nudge. It even worked in other areas of the house like the middle of the staircase where he would plant himself in front of my feet (not trying to send me tumbling down the stairs on purpose of course, right? Right?!) Anyway, point is, he is smart enough to know that “skitty” mean he’d best move along and that was working quite well.
This weekend though? Oh. My. Gawd. First I literally had to kick him – where ‘kick’ means gently moving him in a particular direction with my foot. Not a soccer style kick. (tempting though!) down the stairs because he decided to freak out over something unknown and was heading up literally in front of me as I came down carrying a laundry basket. Then he completely forgot what “skitty” means. When I went in the bathroom last night and saw him there and gave him his move order, he looked up at me with disdain. I ended up having to give him yet another kick in the rear and a literal scoop and swoop out the door! Such defiance! Argh! Seems oddly familiar…
Trees & Flowers & Birds! 
I have the same teen cat at home 🙂 He is very funny.
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