At last! Finally, I seem to be keeping Renton amused this week. For cheap, too. For one thing, he’s finally gotten old enough to where it seems catnip has an effect on him (he’s gonna be nine months Friday week). I’ve sprinkled some dry catnip on the middle shelf of his cat tree thing. So now, whenever Renton feels the need for kitty weed, he just pops up there, sniffs around and takes a few bites, make some hilarious low meowmeowmeow sound, hops off, shakes his head, and hops right back up again for some more. Ha, he’s getting high, figuratively and literally.
Another thing I’ve done is I’ve built him a little tunnel. I had a plethora of boxes from my wedding tea just stacked up in my living room (YES, we unpacked the stuff outta the boxes, Dad; everything is easier to store that way). Renton has been slowly knocking down the boxes, one by one. I could tell he was just dying to have a play with them, but did not want to incur my wrath — which is suprising, because he obviously doesn’t seem to mind being on the receiving end of my frustration and anger when it comes to the blinds, which is another story altogether. Uhh, back to the boxes. Last night I took all the boxes and stacked them in such a way that it creates a little tunnel for him to run through, and run through he does. Back and forth, back and forth. I think it amuses him that he can go into something and come out at a totally different place. Hey, if I was small enough to crawl through the tunnel, I’d be amused, too.
Back to the blinds now, since it is amusing, in an irritating, stinky way. Renton, ever since I first got him, has been fascinated with the blinds on all the windows. No matter where we go, he would be desperate to whack and paw at these things. Cute at first, until you realize he’s bending them out of shape, and almost chewing through the strings. It’s something he gets in trouble for every single time he does it, which I think is part of the kick for him. “Rattle blinds ’till a human comes, act surprised, then dash away and see if they can catch me,” is on his daily to-do list.
I’ve tried several things. There was that kitty boundary spray that didn’t work, the discipline, many other things to play with . . . nothing would distract this cat. So one night a few weeks ago I decide to try hot sauce. It works with deer, why not cats? But I go to the fridge and alas, no hot sauce. Time for improvisation, I’m good at that. I get a few things out of the pantry and let Renton sniff them. He didn’t seem to like the garlic salt at all, so I thought, “Great! I’ll make a paste and smear it on the blinds.” So I go about the steps to do that, and it seems to work. Renton stayed away from the blinds the whole evening.
When I woke up the next morning, I realized why. My whole apartment smelled like a giant onion farted. It was pretty strong. I immediately decided I needed to hone my improv skills. But I had to get to work, I couldn’t do anything about it now. I apologized profusely to Renton and left.
Came back for lunch, and guess what I found. Not only had Renton attacked the blinds, he had finally broken the thing! Garlic salt and all. I was so irritated. Those aren’t my blinds; they belong to the apartment complex! And my apartment still smelled like onion fart. Uggg, that was some day.