Thimble's Really Cool Trick

I have been teaching Thimble to leap to my shoulder on command. This was in anticipation of his gaining enough weight and size that I might be unable to lift him without his help. Colby was guesstimated, when young, to reach 20 pounds; Thimble was guesstimated at 25-30 lbs. I can lift a 20 pound cat. I didn't know about Thimble. (At 6 months those guesstimates were altered to be Colby, 16-18 pounds; Thimble, 18-20 pounds. So they'll both be lift-able for me ... but it's still fun to have Thimble leap to my shoulder!)

I started when he was too little to have the strength to leap from the ground to my shoulder on purpose, because I want him to always hit a middle height surface before he hits my shoulder in order to bleed off some of the force of the leap.

He's had this trick down to a fine art for a while, but since I'm in the trick, it's impossible to video it myself. (There's equipment that will let you do so, but I don't have any of it.) So I had to wait until my sister came to visit in order to have someone video it. The one above was in the morning, after we came back from my early morning walk. 

Thimble loves to do this. He doesn't require any reward save that of being able to leap up to my shoulder. In fact, teaching him to do it was quite easy and only took a few tries. Teaching him to do it only on command was more difficult and he still forgets sometimes, especially during those times when he knows I'm going to tell him he can come up soon and he's too impatient to wait.

During those times I simply don't catch him and he dribbles down my front and lands on the ground rather puzzled as to why it didn't work. He'll give me a "huh?" look and I say, "I didn't tell you you could." (I don't continue the sentence, which would more fully be "could come up" because those two words at the end are part of the command structure for inviting him up, and that would just be confusing.)

The signal for him to do the trick is three-fold. I say "come up" or "you can come up now" and/or "do you want a ride?"; I lean forward slightly, and I tap my shoulder. If we're in a new spot and he's not sure where to jump up to, I pat the surface as well (the desk, bathroom counter, etc). It works amazingly well. I'm surprised he's gotten the "pat the surface" concept--that seems to be more complicated to me.

In the bottom video I had come home from work. This is one of his predictable times to be up. But, in order to get Sophia set up with my phone (no, I don't have a dedicated video camera ... why would I?) and all that, I had delayed his expected routine. 

Normally, like the cat he is, he prefers to be coaxed a little. "Are you sure you want me to be up?" "Really, really sure?" However, this time, he was waiting in the kitchen cat tree by the window, ready and waiting to launch himself across the room and up onto my shoulder. My step-back in the video is not from his weight hitting my shoulder--he doesn't weigh that much yet. No, this was because I was a little surprised at the speed he achieved, and I also found it hilariously funny that he was that eager. I try not to laugh at them when they aren't doing something deliberately to make me laugh, but I couldn't quite bite back a laugh for this one.