Cat update!

I don't get to talk much about our cats - and since coming back after Christmas break, they've been a little distant and hiding upstairs. It was frustrating to say the least. However, over the past two weeks they've finally come back around to giving and accepting love from us and sniffs from Yogi. It's great. They're so fun and curious, playful and cool.

 Last Friday we had our guest bedroom (which holds the bed they hide under, aka: their safe zone) skim coated by some painting professionals. It left a fine dust on the walls and after a day of giving them access to it, Marco's eye flared up (it does this every couple of months, for mostly no reason) and almost swelled shut. We decided to close off the room until we could wipe it down, clean it up, and paint it. So for a week they had to live without their safe zone. They did amazingly well! A big credit to Yogi for not going ape-shit-crazy finding the cats out of their normal hiding place - he held it together, casually sniffing and stepping back and no barking! And the cats thoroughly enjoyed their cat tree next to the window, bathing in all the pacific northwest sunshine.

We've found that when we act cool and non-reactive or overbearing, that Yogi and the kitties also act with some more calm and collected reactions. We used to excessively treat yogi for not eating them, and he probably had no idea why he was being rewarded and instead got super excited that he was getting treats and took that energy back to the cats, which were less enthusiastic about it. Now we acknowledge when he's being a "Good Dog" and ask him to "leave it" or "who's that?" when a cat comes up to him. He does a lot of waiting, like when we are scooping out the cat food behind the baby gate, and knows that he'll get a treat if he stays calm.... a treat that comes at the end of all this waiting.


My favorite cat things lately:

cats tote bag - $16

Oversized cat tote bag - $30

Cat cave - $80

toddler "right meow" tank top

I'm by no means a professional, licensed trainer - these are all my opinions from experience. When in doubt, find a positive reinforcement trainer in your area - they're usually amazing and can quickly solve any problem.