Always Listen to Boo – Or Else!

I had previously mentioned to my case manager about Boo pricking me with his claws if I ignore him too long, but I’m not sure she believed me. Yes, it is a bad habit and yes, I’ve tried to break him of it. Boo does not train in typical ways like most cats. He is the first cat I have ever had (many) that resists training to this extent. I’ve had very good luck training all the others. Boo is definitely not stupid. In  fact, he is probably one of the more intelligent cats I’ve known. Perhaps that’s part of the problem. Fortunately, he is quite well behaved in most ways, with only a couple of bad habits.

Anyway, Friday my case manager was here and we were discussing some of my current issues. She was sitting on the couch, I was in a straight back wooden chair at my computer. Several feet behind me is a doorway into a short hall, where Boo’s food and water bowls are.  He had been pacing around out there in the hall meowing for several minutes. I was trying to ignore him, other than to say “Later, Boo” a couple of times. All of a sudden, with no warning whatsoever I felt the prick of four very sharp claws in my left side, just under my lower rib! Yow! He has this down to a science. He never, ever breaks the skin, but hits hard enough so I really feel those claws! It is always a carefully controlled precision strike.

My case manager was flabbergasted. She couldn’t believe he did that! She later described the scene from her vantage point. She could see the door to the hallway behind me. Boo came through the door in fast stealth mode… low to the floor, moving fast but not quite running, totally silent. She described him as being like a three dimensional shadow racing across the floor, his eyes intently fixed on my side. He hurried over to a spot just behind my chair, then in one fluid continuation of motion, raised up on his hind legs and let me have it in the side with his left paw! Without ever really stopping at all, he swung around, once again low to the floor, still in silent stealth mode, and floated back to the hallway. He momentarily disappeared, then his face appeared peering around the side of the doorway to see if I was getting up or what.

By this time my case manager was laughing out loud and trying not to at the same time. I swung around to look for Boo, knowing what I would find. The scene was just as I expected. There was his face, or half of it, peering around the door frame. At the instant our eyes met he flicked his nose upward and had this little glint of defiance, authority and superiority in his eye… as if to say “I’ll teach you to ignore me when I’m demanding food! If you weren’t so stupid you would have learned this long ago!”

Anybody want a cat? ? ? Just kidding! Even though his behavior can be frightfully bad at times, as I said he is mostly a good cat and a great companion. He is very loving and never leaves my side when I am sick.