Yesterday I posted on 'facebook' how Zorro surprised me by bringing me his 'peanut butter toy' and dropping it at my feet while I was making myself a peanut butter English muffin for breakfast. It was amazing. I wondered what made him do that. Did he recognize the peanut butter jar? Did he smell the peanut butter? Obviously he knew I was working with his most favorite food.
Even though I had already given him his daily allowance of the thick, gooey stuff, I gave him more...how could I not? I thought his action was brilliant.
He has developed another habit. I have a large shawl folded across the back of the sofa/couch (depends on where you grew up) that I throw over the both of us when the house gets chilly. Now, he will sometimes pull it off the back to tell me he wants it to 'cover up.' This is a deliberate action, folks, I did not teach him to do this. If for some reason he is not able to pull it off by himself, he will shoot me a look that says; 'I want that blanket, and I want it now.' We cover up.
At bed time I turn off the lights and announce it is time to go 'nite-nite'. He will jump off the sofa/couch, and follow me to the bedroom, curl up in his spot while I brush my teeth and hair, put on my 'nightie', and get into bed. I then lift up the covers, say, "You ready to go 'nite-nite' and he will snuggle up next to me under the covers and go to sleep. There he will stay till morning.
When I first got Zorro I would put him on a leash and walk him around the perimeter of the front yard, to teach him his boundaries. Eventually, I placed a small, decorative fence around the yard so he could enjoy the front yard without being tied up...however, this week I began to leave the gate open as I made trips to the yard debris recycle bin, just to see what he would do.
God bless him...he would follow me everywhere, and stop exactly where he was supposed to...never going an inch beyond his boundary. I'm not going to get rid of the fence by any means, because there are now little children, and unleashed dogs about the neighborhood; I don't want the temptation to be to great for him to overreact to an unfamiliar situation...and 'appear' to be an aggressor.
Anyhoo, the jest of this piece is to say we don't give our four-legged creatures enough credit for being smart. I'm here to set the record straight. Zorro is not only smart, he's cute, funny, clever, faithful, and loyal. I could not ask for a more loving companion.
Worry not, tomorrow I will write about my cat.
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