Weird as they are, cats do seem to follow some sort of cat logic. When they start acting differently than normal, they’re usually trying to tell you something. Which is why I should have been suspicious when all of a sudden the kitchen counter became Wash’s favorite hang out spot. Now Wash has always had a bad habit of jumping on the counter when I’m doing things in the kitchen. Spraying him in the face with water has helped, but not cured the problem. But for the past week and a half or so, I’ve walked into the darkened kitchen at night to find him just sitting there, always in this one corner. I should have been suspicious, but I just assumed it was Wash being weird.
Tonight I walked down to the kitchen with an entourage of orange kitties to feed them and fix myself an adult beverage. Wash, who normally follows ever step I take until I feed him went immediately to the oven and started staring intently at something under it. Now I may be slow, but I know what it means when a cat stares at something under a stove. It means you have a vermin problem. Except with Wash sometimes it means he’s lost a toy under there and last winter it just meant he was suddenly obsessed with the stove. So I tried to ignore him. Until he chased something from under the stove to under the cabinets. Right in that corner where he always sits.
I didn’t get a good look at whatever he was chasing, but out of the corner of my eye it did look like there was something there and feline roommate, who probably has more reliable instincts than Wash, also seemed interested in it. And as if that wasn’t evidence enough, whatever this was, Wash found it more interesting than food (or possibly saw it as food).
Great.
I didn’t even think I was afraid of mice till I found myself staring at the counter, waiting for one to jump out from underneath the stove.
Well… here’s hoping Wash is a better hunter than I sometimes give him credit for having.