Oh Lennie, for heaven's sake

It's been quite a Saturday. I had to trim Lennie's claws, and that is a struggle, because he hates it so. But that was later.  Here are the Lennie adventures that led up to it.

This morning I was sitting at my computer desk, which I have to tell you something about.  The desk is a rectangular cube, with a vertical divider under the desk top. The computer tower is on one side, and a shelf on the other has printer paper and some other stuff. The keyboard tray slides between the desktop and the vertical divider, meaning that when I'm using the keyboard there's a lot of empty space behind it.

So there I was typing away, when out of nowhere comes a white paw slapping at my hand. Lennie went into computer desk and discovered that from that cozy shelf space he could see me typing.  When I tried to get him out he moved across the divider onto the computer tower, and it took some poking and prodding to get him OUT.  Oh Lennie, for heavens's sake! This is going to be his favorite game for a while and I will be really glad when he tires of it.

Lennie has also demonstrated that he is a mouse-chaser, but has not learned that mouse-killing is part of the job.  I was awakened Thursday at about 3am by the sounds of cat-chasing-something into my closet. Oh Lennie, for heaven's sake! Since my closet holds clothes, shoes, the laundry basket, Christmas wrap, tote bags, etc. I had a vested interest in getting Lennie and his creature out of the closet.

So I turned on the light and carefully moved the shoes and the laundry basket and one tote - because Lennie was focused on that part of the closet floor, and sure enough, out came the mouse and Lennie was off in hot pursuit, into the living room, where Lennie finally caught the muse and began to carry it around while thinking "What now?"

It was a cold night, but I didn't want the chase in the house to continue, so I opened the porch door.  Lennie lost his grip on the mouse, who, to my eternal gratitude, fell onto the porch. They were off again and I closed the porch door until I got up at the proper time.  Lennie came in quickly to get warm and get his breakfast, but since then he has been focused on getting out to the porch.  I had not made a search for the mouse.  This morning I put away the stuff on the porch that was my attempt at Sandy-proofing.  Didn't see the mouse then either.  I figured he'd been a snack the night Lennie caught him.

This afternoon Lennie went on the porch and soon I heard noises out there. Sure enough, Lennie had found the stone-cold mouse and was having the best time playing with it. I put on a garden glove and tried to distract Lennie from his toy.  Such growling!! Oh Lennie, for heaven's sake!  Lennie retreated under the porch sofa. Since it was his suppertime, I put out the Cat Chow and invited him in. This worked, I headed for the porch, and the mouse was tossed outdoors. But there was Lennie at the porch door, positively wailing, his dinner almost untouched.  So I let him out where he wailed and meowed looking for his toy, and finally came in, ate his dinner, and started again.  So I let him on the porch to continue the futile search until he decided to give it up.

When he came in I decided that since  he was so worked up I might as well do his claws.  Trying it when he's peaceful just rouses him for hours, and here he was already irritated.  I wrapped him in a towel and he struggled and hissed (Oh Lennie, for heaven's sake!) and at one point kept his teeth on one of my thumbs but I told him "NO!" and he did very well at not actually biting.  I don't think he'll ever really cooperate like Ernie did, but I think as time goes on the process will become more manageable.

I'm sure Lennie thinks this has been a horrible day.