Gracie the Cat

We have been somewhat lax in our disciplinary duties of late with Gracie. When left to her own devices, it seems that her natural state or that mystical animal companion that she turns into is a cat. Although, I'm sure there's a few hyperactive puppies trapped in there too.

Her sleep has been very good lately, the bad news is that we have given up trying to keep her in her bed all night. She will now only fall asleep in our bed and we have to carry her into her own bed. No matter what, by morning she has wandered back in and settled in, most times, without so much as a bounce on the bed or cry for attention. The feline connection here is the way she sleeps. Her favorite position is stretched across both pillows with her head bumping on of ours and the feet causing the other to wonder who's trying to pick our nose and why are their fingers so stubby? The unwritten rule is that if the other finds her hogging the pillow, like so many of the cats we've had, that we would reposition her between us in the traditional position. We don't use the traditional cat remedy to this pillow hogging because Grace doesn't usually land on her feet.

Her other feline attribute is her amazing ability to jump from object to object and object to floor, as well as her climbing ability. Upon witnessing these feats, I swear my mom-in-law is going faint dead, my wife screams bloody murder; I silently calculate the distance and pray she clears it, or that we have given her enough calcium if she doesn't. She frequently will climb up the back of our couch stark naked and stand in front of the picture window facing the cul-de-sac. It's a peep show for the neighbors; oh well, at least the boys across the street will be properly trained in female anatomy when the time comes.
She will climb bookshelves, dressers, entertainment centers and anything else that could have a potential prize at the zenith. She will jump from the couch to the floor; from the BACK of the couch to the floor, from the therapy ball to the couch (thank goodness her claws haven't come in yet) and every deadly combination of the three. The last straw last week is when she climbed her three foot higher dresser, cleared the two foot wide chasm and two foot high bedpost, to land knee/butt first onto her toddler bed. I witnessed the first one mid jump, and made sure that I was sufficiently cross in trying not to get her to do it again. I'm working on Liv in the bathroom and I hear a CRAACK! My fear was that Gracie Knievel did not clear the headboard; and ran into find her saying in some long lost Dora script "Oh no, the bed is broken!". She had clear the headboard but the siderail could not handle the strain. It had cracked at the screws. OK, the revamping of the bedding arrangements were not our emotional, therapeutic or financial agenda for 1Q 2009; so this was not happy happenstance. Not to mention that this bed was a 'loaner' (sorry, guys, I'll give you a call in a couple of days). Gracie's pearl of wisdom came yet again out of the annals of Dora the Explorer, "STICKY TAPE! Stickky Taaaape!" All of you understand that feeling you get when a child applies pre-school logic to what you perceive as seious situations, but before my blood reached 212 degrees Fahrenheit, I noticed that the break was pretty clean and it only affected one screw. Immediately, the male logic took over and wanted to apply the solution to 99% of the household repair projects...DUCT TAPE. But silver on wood would not have looked that attractive, and the solution WAS INDEED the preschool solution: clear, wide, packing STICKY TAPE. I mean, the bed will clearly not handle the stress of most all acrobatic maneuvers now. But at least I think we've bought ourselves a quarter and we'll last until spring.
We have had more focus on Livie, and we've let Gracie's progress slip somewhat. She is very active and dexterous, I hope our more sedentary lifestyle doesn't slow her down, we have her jumping from the pyramid of cheerleaders in the future. But I already have too many cats in this house, I don't need another...