If you want the best seat in this house you'll have to move the cat. Smiley Cat Photo.

[George McGovern]

[niyad]

1. So very, very true!!!

[George McGovern]

3. Ha Ha Indeed! Thank You niyad!!!

[LoisB]

2. That is cute.

[George McGovern]

4. Thanks Lois!

[wnylib]

5. Ember is the first female cat that I ve had.

My previous ones have all been male

I don't know if this is true of most females, but Ember is less territorial than the males were.

The cat before Ember was Leo, an orange male tabby. He was so affectionate that I nicknamed him Mr. Love. But he was also very territorial. If he was curled on the couch end whee I usually sat, he would not budge. He pushed back at any attempts to move him.

There is one kitchen chair where I often sit when reading a book or posting online. It's more convenient than my desk chair since the desk is cluttered. Also close to the fridge for snacks.

When I was away from that chair, Leo used to curl up on it. When I returned to the chair, he wrapped his paws around the seat to avoid being moved. Sometimes when I was seated there, Leo decided that it was his turn to have the chair. He would jump onto it behind me and push hard against my back with his whole body, trying to dislodge me.

When he lost that battle for the chair, he just sat on a chair that was at the end of the table and perpendicular to mine. Then he reached a paw under the table to touch my leg, as if to confirm that we were still friends.

Ember is just the opposite. When I approach the couch where she is spread out she immediately leaps down to yield it to me. Same with the chair.

[George McGovern]

8. Goodness gracious wnylib what a difference in person-cat-alities. Sounds like Leo loved to play kitchen chair games.

Like when you would return to "your" chair, he had made it "his", even wrapping his paws AROUND THE SEAT! Talk about territorial!

But Ember seems more agreeable. What a pair!

Thank for bringing a chuckle to my day.

[wnylib]

9. They are total opposites in many ways.

Leo was so talkative that when I was on the phone, I had to shut myself in another room because Leo kept trying to join the conversation.

Ember is so quiet that she goes for several months without a single meow. She communicates with body language and by calling my attention to her in a variety of ways, like knocking things to the floor (which Leo never did).

Completely different temperaments.

It was quite an adjustment for me when Ember came into my life. Her lively, silent mischief helped me get over my grief when Leo died.

[George McGovern]

12. Ember may have been Godsent. Thanks wnylib.

[wnylib]

13. Another little chuckle for you regarding

Leo gripping the chair seat by wrapping his paws around it. One time I tried to get him to let go by tipping the chair almost upside down. Did not work. He just dug his claws into the chair cushion and hung there.

[George McGovern]

14. Ha Ha LOL THAT'S a Big Time Hardy Har Har wnylib!! Leo defeats gravity! What would Newton think!! THX!!

[wnylib]

15. I later learned that there was sound cat logic and

feline courtesy behind Leo's behavior.

I came across an online article about how cats in a multiple cat household handle territorial issues. They develop a system of owning certain areas at different times of the day.

I live by myself, so Leo was the only other living creature in my apartment. Dogs regard themselves as part of the human pack, but cats view their humans as part of the cat colony. So, in Leo's mind I was a very rude cat who did not abide by proper feline etiquette because I hogged certain spaces too often and too long. He was trying to assert his rights and teach me etiquette.

[George McGovern]

16. Holy Cats wnylib! You could be a cat family's therapist. I read a "cat quote" --

"No one knows how a cat's mind works. They make of us a captive audience to the absurdly sublime. All we can do is watch in awe and disbelief as they twist into knots all we think we know about them and reality. They are truly the masters of the universe."

[wnylib]

17. Love that quote.

I don't have any special talent of my own for knowing how cats think and behave. I just apply what I've read in articles and books by animal experts who have studied them.

Example: My current cat, Ember, is very strong willed and we used to get into power struggles when she insisted on doing things that I wanted her to stop, like getting onto the table. The more I said, "No, no," the more she defiantly hopped up there with a hostile stare at me.

Then I read about how cats communicate friendliness to each other in body language. The article said that it works with cat and human communications, too. Cats will blink slowly at each other to indicate an absence of hostility. It can mean affection, or friendship.

So when she got mad at me for saying, "No, no," I did the slow blink at her a couple times. She calmed down and stopped thumping her tail. After a minute, she slowly blinked back at me. Blinking back at me meant, in cat body language, "OK, I understand. We're still friends."

She started initiating the slow blink at me when she did something that she knew I didn't like. It was like saying, "Oops. Still friends?"

She has not lost her feline independence. She's just more civil about it and more cooperative with me now that we've established that we are friends who mean no harm.

[MIButterfly]

6. I have a plaque in my kitchen that has that saying on it.

Only it says "the house" instead of "this house." And it has a different cat on it.

[George McGovern]

10. It's a tried and true sentiment. Thanks MIButterfly!

[3catwoman3]

7. The moment we vacate a chair, one of our 4 will be right there to lay claim...

...to a prewarmed seat.

[George McGovern]

11. Hah they're no dummies 3catwoman3! A warm butt's a happy butt. Thank You!