Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Rolling it the other way

kw: animals, pets

We had the good fortune to have a well-behaved cat for nearly eighteen years, until she died about ten years ago. I am not counting the first half year, when she was learning her good behavior! About five months ago we finally got a kitten to raise, and she is now seven months old. She is a pretty good cat, though still very young, but more active and assertive than her predecessor. We are learning how to cat-proof our house.

One issue that arose once she got big enough, is toilet paper. Now that she can reach the rolls in the dispensers, she delights in rolling out a long tail of the stuff for her to chase and pounce upon and drag about. After discussing what kinds of habits we could re-learn the most easily, we decided to change a long-standing practice and turn the rolls around so they dispense from the back instead of the front. This being a cat of very little brain, she hasn't figured out why she can roll and roll and roll the paper, and none comes off any more. She seems to have given up already.

It is taking us a bit of adjustment to learn a slightly different motion to get paper, but we do think we're smarter than this cat. This is one reason in favor of putting toilet paper rolls so they roll from the back, something I never thought of in the previous five or six decades!

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