a click on the door from near the floor

a click from low on the door

the door opens slightly

a gray paw suddenly extends into view

a black eye appears over the paw

then an ear

the door opens more

The whole cat appears

the paw opens the door further

she glances up at me, momentarily

not a danger or obstruction

my room is suddenly graced with her silent presence

the cat is in the room

for a while

The dangers of the flat-screen monitors

I finally got an up-to-date flat screen 22 inch monitor. Looks good. Only one member of the family has a problem with it.

The cat has traditionally rested on the top of the old monitor, so she came in to my room, leaped to the top of the printer table and continued in a second leap to the top of the monitor - which wasn't there.

Fortunately, Samsung builds a monitor able to take falling behind the computer desk. Mitzi, the cat, streaked out of the room in clear chagrin.

My kid, who earlier migrated to a 22 inch flat screen, said that Mitzi did the same to his monitor. But only once. So my conclusion is that Mitzi learns quickly from experience, but does not generalize the learning as rapidly if at all.

This has been another chapter in the book of the education of the cat.

I can't buy a flatscreen monitor. My cat won't permit it.

I would really like to have a flatscreen computer monitor, but I can't. My cat (Mitzi) comes in, leaps up onto my knee (always from behind me and by surprise) then take a second leap to the top of my monitor. It's a good thing I don't have a weak heart. Oh, and I don't wear shorts to blog in. Jeans are enough to protect me from the accidental claw.

Mitzi likes it up there on top of the monitor. It's warm and close to a person, so she sleeps there, occasionally waking up and batting at the cursor as it moves across the screen. Since the cat rules this house with an iron paw, do I dare buy a flatscreen monitor and kick her out of her cozy, high, catperch? What would the results be if I did?

Well, today I found out. My kid bought a 22 inch wide flatscreen monitor. It's a beauty to behold to those of us with a technical bent. But to a cat, it is just another catperch. Or so she thought.

Until she leaped to the top of it. There, instead of a wide expanse of warm cat-bed she found -- nothing. No place for a paw, let alone a place to sleep.

She reached the top and was able to avoid going all the way over by a massive amount of energy and normal cat reflexes. Then she looked both ways. No cat perch. Then nothing. She simply didn't move, except to look back and forth to where the back of the monitor should be.

Then finally she got down. Cats don't show expression in their face, but you can tell by how they move when a cat meets the unexpected.

Mitzi was NOT a happy cat.