Defiance

J-Cat has reached a new stage in her life. I call it cat adolescence. I adopted J-Cat when she was a year old and we've spent the past 5 years together. I know a dog year is 7 human years, but I have no idea how many human years equals a cat year. I can only assume J-Cat has hit her teen years. This has brought up her need to defy me in the past year.

One battle we've been having this week has taken place on the back of sofa. This year for my birthday, I decided to get new couches in the form of a sectional. With Double-A coming into my life at 6'3, I noticed my love seats weren't cutting it anymore. No matter how cute they were (one blue, one beige, with a big red rug tying them together), there was no hope of snuggling (comfortably) while watching TV. So I made a big girl decision to upgrade. Once the new sectional arrived with firm cushions and pillows, I realized J-Cat's desire to be on the back of my love seats over the past 4 1/2 years caused those once firm pillows to have a lovely dip in the middle where she sat. I decided this wouldn't happen with the sectional and had some classy aluminum foil along the back for about a month to deter her from ruining the firmness. It definitely did the trick along with my steady "get down!" commands when she jumped up on the back after her fear the foil once gave her finally wore off.

Here we are, months later, in full adolescent defiance. Last night I repeatedly had to say "get down" when she felt the need to get on the back of the couch. She'd jump down, and jump right back up in a new spot like I would magically decide that was the part I was fine with her sitting on. This morning after waking up from one of her many naps, she jumped up from where she was laying, and looked at me. I always give her some time to jump down on her own since she finds it quicker to jump over the back of the couch as opposed to hopping down from the front and walking around the sectional to get to my desk. After giving her ample time, I said, "get down." She stared at me. "Get down." No response. "Get down!" Still nothing. "J-Cat, Get DOWN!" Nope. So I stood up, and half a second later she jumped to the ground. For the first time I felt like one of those moms getting onto their child..."One...Two...I better not get to three..."

I hope this phase ends soon. Oh, and if you were wondering, the sectional is ideal for snuggling, even if the majority of time its just our heads touching with us each taking up our own side of it.