CLASSIC CONDITIONING FOR CATS
My husband Darwin and I have to put the cats in the basement at night because otherwise they scratch at our bedroom door and meow and cry and wail. “DOOR IZ CLOSED! WHY YOU NOT LET US IN?”
And our cats are NOT good bed companions. They wander around the bed, bat at the covers, and sit on your face. So at night, into the basement they go.
Darwin somehow trained them to scamper for the basement when he claps his hands at them, which was a neat trick. But sometimes the cats don’t want to go, and instead of running for the basement, they run under the bed or the table to hide, which forces us to spend several annoying minutes in kitty extraction.
And then I remembered the cat treat box.
I store the tiny nibbles of cat treats in a Tupperware container rather than in the bag they come in because the bag never closes right, and the treats go stale. Whenever I want to give the cats a treat, I shake the Tupperware, and the rattling of treats instantly brings both cats a-running, no matter where they are in the house. Dora, who waddles rather than runs, especially can’t resist the siren lure.
So one evening when the cats were resisting the basement, I shook the cat treat box. POOF! Both cats emerged from hiding and danced around the kitchen, demanding a treat. I tossed the treats into the basement. ZOOM! The cats rushed down the stairs. I shut the door.
This went on. It never, ever failed. More than once, I could see that Dinah was leery about the basement and didn’t want to go, but the treats are her crack, and she has to go.
And Dora? The little meatloaf doesn’t even pretend to resist. And then we had a new development. Nowadays, when it gets dark, she waddles up to the nearest human, meowing and whining and demanding attention. I couldn’t figure out why she was so needy after dark. I’d try to pet her, and she’d run out of the room, then saunter back in, meowing some more, then run away when I tried to pet her. I finally realized she was waddling toward the basement. She WANTS the basement because it means a cat treat! She’s willing to sell hours of freedom for a teensy snack that takes her only a second to devour.
Classic conditioning in action.
Title: The Importance of Being Kevin by Steven Harper
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Contemporary, Gay, New Adult, Romance
Length: 218 pages/Word Count: 74,714
Summary:
Kevin Devereaux’s life can’t get worse. He’s on probation. He’s stuck with an unemployed ex-convict dad. And he lives in a run-down trailer on the crappy east side of town. To keep his probation officer happy, Kevin joins a theater program for teenagers and falls hard for Peter Finn, the lead actor in the show—and the son of the town’s leading family. Despite their differences, Peter returns Kevin’s feelings, and for the first time, Kevin learns what it means to be in love.
But Peter’s family won’t accept a gay son—let alone a boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks—and in their conservative town, they must keep the romance secret. Still, they have the play, and they have each other, so they’ll get by—
Until a brutal attack shatters Kevin’s life and puts Peter in danger of going to jail for murder.
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Purchase Link: Dreamspinner Press