The Learning Begins

I recently wrote about getting a couple of talk buttons for the cats, where I discovered like many Christmas mornings, I had not planned on the batteries in advance, lol. Well, I got some batteries in the mail from @shanibeer (thank you!) and now we have liftoff!

This button says "balcony time" and I'm hitting it every time I open the balcony door, go in or out, and any time Yuan goes in or out. Yuan is wicked smart, so I'm hoping he'll pick it up pretty fast. The only slog is probably that it's been cold outside so we're not going out as often. :)

This button says "up" and I've been hitting it every time I pick Maggie up onto the bed (she needs help, she's 17). So far I think she thinks I am just A Crazy Hooman, but she's also the most vocal about when she needs something, so hopefully she realizes that this is the "hey get your hooman to pick you up onto the bed" button. :)

So far what I've been reading on training info says that when you first start off using the buttons, you want to put them near the related thing - so, balcony time near the door and up near the bed. Once they get the idea of buttons in general, you can put them all together. But I think at least on these two, I will probably leave them where they are. It's usually when I'm in the bed that Maggie asks to come up, and currently Yuan paws at the door when he wants to go on the balcony. If they get the swing of this and I start getting more buttons, then maybe I'll have a more central board with other words, like "pets" and "play" and whatnot.

Since last time I shared a funny video of Billi the cat using buttons, this time I will share a funny video of Bunny the dog, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about with these buttons for cats! :3

In other news, I finally got off my arse and repaired the Thingamastring this week. I cut shorter and sewed together the stretched out elastic, and made a new hook to wrap around the door. It hangs on a wire hanger on one side, but you want to run a string of some kind under the door and onto the other doorknob so that it stays put, because they can really pull it otherwise!

#needlework in progress

I pulled out this spool of ribbon I had in my craft supplies to use for the hook and it turned out it was only 4 feet long! LOL. I've never seen a spool of ribbon that short. I probably read it and thought it said 4 yards. Oh, well! I added a tie from a seat cushion that fell off years ago to make up the difference.

Yuan was immediately on the hunt. Even Maggie was interested, but she backed off when Yuan came. So I need to turn it on when he's napping or out on the balcony just for her. It spins that dangly string around on the elastic on a belt so it flicks in and out like a snake tongue. They love it.

Excuse my really loud laughter in this video, but here is a 3-year-old Yuan playing with it 9 years ago! ^_^

So kitty toys are deployed. Have a great day everyone, and I'll let you know when they start using the buttons! :D