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Skeeter's Adventures!

CLICKER FETCH -- The Coolest Game Ever!

I taught Mom a new game! It’s so much fun! It involves two of my favorite things: playing with toys and getting treats! (Three things, if you count getting attention from Mom.) Here’s how you play!

First, get a small, soft toy that you can easily carry in your mouth. Play with it; let Mom see you batting it around for awhile. Then pick up the toy in your mouth and bring it to her. She will hold her hand under your chin and say, “Drop it.” When you drop the toy into her hand, she will click the clicker and give you a treat! Then she will say, “Get it!” and toss the toy for you. You run and chase it and play with it as long as you want, until you feel like getting another treat, then bring the toy back to Mom. When she says “Drop it,” you drop the toy, and you get a click and a treat, then Mom throws the toy again! What a fun game! If your humans don’t have a clicker, you can play without it -- the main thing is the treats!!! You should get your human to try it!

Mom likes to play this game with me while she is giving Jubilee a separate clicker lesson, because chasing the toy keeps me occupied long enough for Jubilee to work on her own tricks without throwing a diva snit, ha ha! It’s also a good game for when Mom is eating something I’d like to share, because it distracts me from begging without Mom having to use the Bad Cat Bottle. And I get a little piece of Mom’s food as my treat!

My Mom actually keeps clickers and bags of Greenies stashed around the house for impromptu games. (On her desk in the office, in her nightstand drawer, on the end table in the living room...) But Mom’s own food is always a better treat than a Greenie! During our “official” clicker classes, Jubilee and I both get turkey as treats, because that’s Jubilee’s favorite, and sometimes I get cheese, because that’s my favorite (Jubilee will only eat some kinds of cheese, and then only sometimes).

Jubilee is good at targeting, and good at verbal cues like “sit” and “stand,” but she is too much of a princess (in my opinion) to enjoy doing circusy-type stuff like jumping through hoops. Jubilee sees the whole clicker thing as an economic exchange, and so, for example, if she wants a treat she will jump onto a stool and stand on her hind legs, but if she doesn’t think the reward is sufficient, she will not do the trick. Me, I just love to play ... AND I love to get treats! I will jump through a hoop to chase a cat dancer or to get a piece of cheese; either way it’s fun! Mom tries to teach to our individual strengths, so with Jubilee she does subtle things with combinations of hand signals and voice cues, like she’ll put her hand on her knee and say, “Jubilee, can we talk?” at which Jubilee puts her paw on top of Mom’s hand. Mom calls that one “The Oprah.” (Mom finds it really amusing; I’m not sure why.)

I have only been playing clicker games for a couple of months, and Mom hasn’t been quite as rigorous with me as she was with Jubilee in the beginning (which if you ask me is Jubilee’s fault for taking half of Mom’s attention). I am still learning “sit” and “down.” Mom is also trying to teach me “shake hands,” but I’m still not sure of the difference between politely touching Mom’s hand with my paw and grabbing wildly at her hand with both paws like a lion bringing down a gazelle! My attention span is like a ferret on Red Bull, so I need frequent reinforcement of basics like targeting. And I have tons of kitten energy, so I love jumping over things and running back and forth. Lately, Mom has been trying to think of new games to teach me that will channel my energy and help me develop my focus and coordination.

Well, the other day Mom happened to visit the Cat Fanciers’ Association Website (no particular reason; it’s about cats, so Mom has it bookmarked) and noticed a link to something called Feline Agility Competition. It’s all about clicker training, so naturally Mom was interested! Here’s the link: http://agility.cfa.org/index.html

Mom also found the website of another group that does cat agility competitions, International Cat Agility Tournaments (ICAT): http://www.catagility.org/index.html

Anyway, Mom isn’t planning on entering me in any contests (not until one of these events is held in the Bay Area, anyway, ha ha) but she got lots of great ideas from the pictures of the agility courses and is now planning to make me my very own! I’ll keep you updated on how it goes!

Smell ya later!

Tagged!

Hi cats!

I got tagged by my friends Molly, Felix, and Bitsy! And Jubilee got tagged by Baby Girl, Athena, and Pixel! Jubilee decided to sit this round out, so I am playing for both of us!

You know the rules: When you get tagged, you post in your Diary (1) The Rules of the Game (just copy and paste these if you like), and (2) Seven Pawsome Facts About Yourself. (3) Then choose 7 kitties to tag, and list the names of the 7 kitties you are tagging. Don’t forget to purr them a pawmail informing them that they have been tagged and notifying them to read your Diary, or, send them a fun Rosette announcing that they've been tagged!

Seven Skeeteriffic Facts!
1) I am a bratty little brother! I love to annoy Jubilee! For example, she likes to sit on the windowsill in Mom's office, behind the curtain, so that her silhouette is visible. I sit on the table in front of the window and paw at her silhouette until she swats at me -- one time she got so mad she caught her claws in the fabric and pulled the whole curtain down! Ha ha!

2) I love lots of human foods, and one of my favorites is cheese!!! Any kind of cheese! So far I have tried mozzarella, Muenster, blue, Brie, feta, Gruyere, Gouda, and several varieties of cheddar -- all delicious!

3) I don't meow. I chirp! Mom says I sound like a cross between a bird and a Tivo.

4) I love, love, love to play with toys! My favorites are small, fuzzy ones that I can carry in my mouth. Jubilee and I have a toybox upstairs, and another one downstairs -- the toys start out in the upstairs toybox, I pull them out and chase them or carry them downstairs, where they get lost under the couch. Mom finds them and puts them in the downstairs toybox. When most of the toys have migrated downstairs, Mom takes them upstairs, and the circle begins again. Mom calls it The Toy Cycle.

5) I am an artist! While I was at the shelter, I made a painting for a charity auction. My painting didn't get sold, so it stayed on display at the shelter, and when Mom adopted me the shelter staff thought she might like to have it, so they gave it to Mom. My painting is now proudly on display in the living room!

6) I love people! I always want to be where the people are, and I am a HUGE cuddlebug. Mom worries that she or Dad will smush me some night, because I like to sleep nestled right in between them and I sometimes get lost in the comforter.

7) I am learning clicker games! Jubilee gets very impatient during her own lessons, because I get too excited to remember to wait my turn and I jump all around. So Mom is incorporating "Stay" and "Down" into my training. But if I take up too much of Mom's attention, Jubilee starts standing on her hind legs to try to get Mom to notice her, and sometimes she even gives a distinctly frustrated, annoyed meow and huffs away in a snit!

Now I am off to tag these 7 cats:
Tibby
Princesse Citron
Giotto
Busby
Laurie
Ele'
Diogi
(If I tag you and you don't want to participate, I won't be offended!)

Smell ya later, everycat!

Kittengarten!

I have learned so much in my new home! Mom started teaching me the basics while I was still quarantined in the kitchen, like playing with soft paws and some beginning clicker tricks like following a target. Now that my territory has expanded to the whole house, Kittengarten has begun in earnest!

So far, I have learned to come when I’m called (most of the time, ha ha!), jump from one stool to another, and jump through a hoop (I’m better at that one than Jubilee!). I am still a little uncoordinated, so jumping onto heights is a challenge for me, and my balance isn’t good enough for me to stand on my hind legs the way Jubilee can. But I am making good progress on learning “Sit"!

I usually have pretty good manners -- I don’t knock things over or tear up Mom’s expensive lingerie (whatever that is) -- but when Mom or Dad is eating something good I just can’t help trying to grab some! If I really make a pest of myself, though, I might get a squirt from the Bad Cat Bottle. But if I am good and wait patiently, I get a treat! So I’m getting better about my table etiquette.

Also, Mom has been teaching me to walk on a leash! She tried this with Jubilee, but after a few lessons Jubilee let Mom know that she didn’t care for it. I don’t mind it so much; the harness feels weird, but not uncomfortable, and Mom lets me actually go outside when the leash is on. I don’t like having the leash in my peripheral vision though; when I get bored I start trying to attack it, and that’s when Mom knows the lesson is over.

Everyone who comes over says I am very friendly and handsome! I am more outgoing than Jubilee, who is sweet and affectionate but (being a diva) prefers to get to know new people at her own pace, so she gets really jealous at all the attention I get! Mom tells her not to worry, that I won’t be a cute playful kitten forever ... I say, I may not be a kitten much longer, but I will always be a handsome and charming guy! I am almost seven months old now! Mom says I have gotten bigger, and heavier to pick up, but I am still long-legged and skinny with big ears and paws like a gangly teenager. I wonder how big I will get when I am a grown-up cat???