The Many Faces of Junior Cat

Our Junior Cat is the most unique cat that I have ever known.

He follows me into the bathroom almost every time I go in. At first, I thought that it was because he had a captive audience and I could massage his head and ears and love him exclusively. This progressed to him standing on the floor, with his front paws on my knees and gently pawing at me if I did not pay enough attention. If that didn't work, he would jump on my lap. Lately, he has started to jump on the toilet tank and enjoy the view from there. He is pushing all sorts of personal boundaries but I do believe that the biggest allure (at present, anyway) is his fascination with water...

Senior Cat's steroid treatment has left him chronically thirsty and Junior is nothing, if not a copy cat at the best of times. As Senior finds enjoyment in hunting down fresh, new water sources he has a shadow as Junior must investigate anything that Senior is interested in. So lately, I find both cats waiting at the bathroom door for me in the morning so that I can turn on the bathtub tap (just a trickle) and create a fresh fountain experience for them.

I simply cannot help but amuse myself by snapping photos of Junior in his many forms:

Junior, relaxing. Cats tend to sleep on high alert but Junior has his own unique style of looking very unrestful while he is taking a cat nap out of his home territory (I believe that the only time he truly relaxes is when he is sleeping in my Youngest Son's room - the Cat Oasis of the house).

He spotted my favorite burgundy cardigan on the back of the chair the other day and immediately he had to check out this 'tent'. He reminded me of a kid with his unbridled anticipation of checking out a new fort.

Lately, the computer has held a great deal of fascination for him. He stands squarely in front of the monitor so you can't see beyond him. Then he will chase the arrow around the screen when you move the mouse. He is astounded at the way the keyboard creates movement - my Youngest Son said that Junior seemed to be correlating the idea that moving the mouse or typing on the keyboard was the reason behind the movement on the screen as he looked back and forth between Human Involvement on this fascinating new Cat Toy.

Then again, perhaps I am the culprit behind his newfound interest. The first time he showed an interest in the computer, I turned on a bird video for him to watch. Here, he is checking out the bird-sounds that are coming from the speaker. He is no fool. He knows the birds are not in the computer. They are in the speakers!

Speaking of bird-watching ... his most favorite spot in the house to watch the birds in our neighbor's trees is on the kitchen counter, where he gets a bird's eye view out of our kitchen window. We chase him off the counter every time we catch him, so he found a compromise. He hopped atop the fridge and discovered no one was angry at him for jumping on that spot. He can still check out the birds from a distance, so that seems to have appeased him. For the moment.

This expression is one that he wears the most often. I can almost hear a teenage voice saying/thinking with great attitude "What!?" "What are you looking at?" "It wasn't me!!"

This is one of my favorites. His 'yoga pose'. He has discovered that this is a real crowd pleaser and it is his way of getting a little attention when he sees a captive audience close by. I'm sure that he does this to hear the sound of our laughter...

His newest prey is the paint that is chipping off of our walls and door frames. Our corner moldings have been done terribly and there is a great amount of paint chipping off the corners of our walls. I do believe that he discovered this and loves to watch the paint fall off the wall. Because he is now not only helping the paint 'fall off the wall', but he has discovered that the painted door jambs provide the same entertainment and he is working at stripping those as well. Now? I do believe that he likes to make me run. He knows that he isn't supposed to be clawing at the walls and door frames, so when he wants a little attention (and no one is noticing his infamous yoga pose), he runs around the house clawing at the paint to make me get up and chase him.

Then ... he snuggles up and tucks his head upside down and curls up his paws (his most unnatural pose of all - anything curled up and cat-like is definitely something that he is copying from Senior or cat videos - his body simply doesn't enjoy being curled up and tucked in). And he looks like the picture of sweetness and innocence. Because that is exactly who he thinks he is. What do you think??