My husband and I were sitting on the couch on evening watching the couch play. Ethan turned to me and said, "Laura, all the cats do is play all day. None of them have learned responsibility. How do we teach the cats responsibility?"
We really had this conversation. I thought for a moment and said, "Well, have you tried to give the cats chores to do?"
"No," Ethan replied. What kinds of chores do you think they can do?"
"Well," I began, "They sleep in our bed a lot. Maybe we can get them to help us make the bed."
We tried this. The cats enjoy playing in the blankets and sheets, but they mostly either make lumps under the blankets or end up throwing the covers off the bed. Neither of these things were very productive.
We thought of having them help us in the kitchen. This was equally productive. They enjoyed trying to put their noses in our food and liked to walk on the counters. Rocky knocked down the trash can once, but then I just had to clean it up.
Hansel and Nermie were especially interested in helping Ethan cook. They couldn't understand why we wouldn't let them near the hot stove when things were cooking.
Ethan and I are still thinking very hard about this. We don't want our kitties to grow up lazy. What do you think we could do to teach our kitties responsibility?
