August 11, 2008

Bessie is made of quicksilver. She will materialize from who-knows-where to be exactly where you don't want her: She will climb into a drawer (small, medium or wide, it won't matter, she'll make herself small enough to get right inside); get into a cupboard, run down to the basement; get into the fridge (a new favorite); climb inside the dishwasher, etc. You can't be quick enough to stop her, either, you simply have to pull her out of wherever she is, or wait for her to come back upstairs. She has no concept of what "no" means, although I'm doing my best to teach her.

She's very quiet, doesn't really meow, except when she wants to get down to the basement because one of us is there, and the basement door is closed (hah!). She will then jump up against the door and try to push it open, meowing all the while.

Yesterday morning Cinnamon was drinking from the tap in our bathroom, with his rump to the door. In comes Bessie, who proceeds to up and bop his rump with her paw, not once, not twice, but three times. For the first two thwaps Cinnamon appeared to not notice. He did, the third time around, when he turned and hissed at her. She backed down. He resumed drinking and she tried to find a way in between the shower door and the side of the vanity to get up to bop him again. Not having the space to do so, she waited until he lay down along the windowsill, then jumped onto the sink. I stood watching, curious to see who would move first. Cinnamon looked at her, she looked at him, he turned his head away and continued relaxing. After a minute or two she made a move to him, he hissed at her, jumped down and ran under the bed again, with her in hot pursuit!

She has become very affectionate, although is not a lap cat. For the first time, this morning she woke me up, intentionally, by jumping on the bed and nuzzling my face. Then she moved down to the bottom of the bed, where she just stretched out. Luckily, Ginger was not on the bed at the same time.

She has a new trick: She likes jumping up onto the screen at the backdoor, where she hangs by her claws. We remove her, of course, because once her claws get into the screen, she can't effectively get herself down. What a mischief!