Well, he thinks it's insane, anyway. I mean, I get up, leave the house for an hour. (I'm walking.) I come back for about twenty minutes, change clothes, and leave the house again. And then I don't come back for simply ages. (Going to work.) And then when I do come back, I'm no fun for playing with. I barely manage five or ten minutes of toy tossing before I quit (because I'm exhausted) and then I end up going to sleep a couple hours later (8 pm).
It's very frustrating for poor Max. He has tried a number of strategies to get me to stay home in the morning after the walk. (He knows the first time I leave, I come back shortly afterwards; it's the second time that it's critical to stop me.) He's tried ignoring me by going into another room. After all, it makes him stop his behavior when I go into another room and ignore him. He can't figure out why it doesn't stop mine.
He's tried being playful and kitten cute. He's tried being cuddly and sweet. Unbeknownst to him, this one is actually the one that has the most chance of success. I can't let him know that though, because without the job there is no house for us to live in, so I steel my heart and go to work anyway.
This morning, he decided to try to physically make me stay. When I came in from my walk, on my way across the kitchen, he latched on to my ankle with both front paws and started nomming on my ankle and working his way down to my foot. This does have the effect of making me stop walking. That's what I do when he plays rough and I don't want him to; I try to stop giving him positive feedback about it, which is keeping on moving in this case.
And I started whining at him. He doesn't like it if you yell at him, (even a stern "no"), so instead I've been trying whining. "Ow, Max, ow, that hurts, Max, why are you hurting me, ow, that hurts" and so on and so forth, all in a very hurt-sounding whine.
Max seemed astonished. I could almost see the thoughts run through his head. "Oh dear, I must have sunk my teeth in further than I meant to! I should let go immediately." Which he did, and I told him he was a good boy and paused to do ear scritches. He loves those.
But unfortunately for his ultimate plan, I still went to work.
He actually rotates these strategies, trying a random one each morning. I feel so bad for him. I really am not home enough to satisfy him. I wish I could be, but as I'm not going to win the lottery any time soon, and he's not making me any money, I'm afraid I have to go to work. Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment