Many of you have been following this blog for awhile and so you know the behaviors of the two cats. But one of the things that is interesting is when their behavior goes too far. We all have limits. There are limits between parents and children, work colleagues and limits placed on us by society. With animals, you have to set the limits early and keep reinforcing them. One of the days to do it this is through consistent reward and punishment. You reward behaviors you want and punish those you don’t want. The trick is that if you are punishing a behavior, you have to catch the animal doing it in the act. Unlike humans, cats and dogs have no real memory from an action and a consequence. If your cat jumps on the furniture, you can’t punish her an hour after the fact. Pavlov proved this and it is has been repeated.
So the reason for my long-winded story is that there are certain limits the cats have at each of our houses. For example, Roxie has very rarely peed at Azeena’s house, but she does so at my house with impunity. Window blinds are literally purchased by the multiples at Azeena’s because Jean-Claude breaks them at his grandmothers, but leaves mine alone.
In life the one thing you can control is your behavior. You cannot control others, but you can control yourself. There are times when we all feel like we want to push our limits. Test the waters and see how far we can go. In some cases, this is a good thing – Can I go back to school full-time while working full-time and other times, it’s best left alone.
As a Libra, I spend my life looking for balance between stretching my mind, my self-examination and trying to stay grounded. Like Jean-Claude walking along the fence railing it is a hard act and requires constant attention. But I’m up for the challenge.
Cats & All That ™ 