Esteban the Troublemaker

Esteban has been happily making himself at home. He enjoys relaxing on our bed. He plays with Steve and Saxon when he’s in the mood. He does zoomies more and more often and has unhappy outbursts less and less often. Saxon was grooming him tonight!

Jay told me a couple of weeks ago that someone – some cat – was chewing on one of the spider plants. I didn’t think too much of it because spider plants aren’t harmful to cats. That’s why we have them. Whichever cat apparently kept it up because Jay bugged me about it again. I didn’t really take note until I saw spider plant leaves all over the kitchen floor. I asked Jay about it, and he pointed at his spider plant, Simon, on top of the fridge. Yup, we name everything in this house. 🙂 Simon had been chewed to almost nothing. Jay was almost positive it was Esteban doing it. He said that he had seen Esteban chewing lower leaves before. It was a fair assumption. I’ve seen Spyder chewing on some low hanging babies from the spider plant we have hanging in the window above Yorrick’s cage (that one is named Eisenhower), but none of the other cats seem to care. Also, none of our cats can jump as high as I’ve seen Esteban jump, and I had to guess that Esteban was jumping from the mini cat tree under the window across from the fridge up onto the fridge. So, I removed the cat tree. Jay was skeptical. He thought Esteban was jumping onto the counter, jumping up onto the elevated toaster, then up onto the fridge.

That night, Nebula, our newest foster, woke me up when she started crying. As I laid there listening to her, I heard the coffee mugs on the counter *tink tink* together. ESTEBAN!!! I ran into the kitchen and caught him up on top of the fridge!! Boy, did I scare the you-know-what out of him!!! I grabbed him and put him on the ground before he could jump down. I was so mad!!!!

The next day I put obstacles up on the counter and toaster to keep Esteban from climbing up onto the fridge, then put foil up under and around Simon – both to scare him and to alert us if we don’t hear him climbing again. I went to PetSmart (in yet another snow storm) and bought a little pot of that grass they sell that is safe for pets to chew on. I put it in a spot that is safer for Esteban to climb to. It’s fine if you chew plants! Just chew this plant that is lower and doesn’t belong to Jay!!

Jay heard coffee mugs *tink tinking* again this morning and caught Esteban before he got any higher than the counter. It seems my obstacles worked. The plant from PetSmart, who has yet to be named, has been chewed a teeny tiny bit. I guess it doesn’t taste as good as a spider plant.

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Poor Simon
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The troublemaker

 

Author: stevethetripawdlady

Born and raised in Upstate NY and a volunteer at Mohawk Hudson Humane Society in Menands, NY. That's where Steve came from. Remember, Steve is a girl!

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