Up a tree

As I've mentioned before, Mr. Pancakes is ornery. He knows exactly what he is not supposed to do, like jumping on the coffee table/TV stand/console table/anything that has an object lying on it that he could knock down. He knows he will get attention from it, even if it is negative attention, if he does these things. So what does he do? He does them. We've tried putting double-sided tape on the tables, and that worked for a while, but tape doesn't phase him now. He gets squirted with a water bottle when he jumps on the coffee table, but I think he's starting to enjoy that. There's no training that cat, so we thought we'd distract him. Distract him with something tall, fun and laced with catnip.

Eric came home with a floor-to-ceiling cat tree the other day, which we promptly assembled and waited for Mr. Pancakes to happily bound upon. Except.... it never happened. Turns out, our cat is deathly afraid of heights. He wouldn't even go on the first level, about a foot and a half off the floor, on the first day. We tried to put him on the top level and he made the most gutteral, sickly noise I've ever heard, just begging to be brought back down to earth. The feline is not normal. 

After a few days, he has hopped up on the first level on his own a few times, where I think he likes it, but I'm fairly certain we just threw money away with this purchase. Mr. Pancakes is happier with his favorite toy ever, a rubber band, than with this cat tree.

Of course, when he realizes the camera is pointed at him, he turns on the charm.

Maybe he just realizes he is getting older and a little more "fluffy" around the belly, and tree climbing is no longer conducive to his lifestyle (kind of reminds me of "The Giving Tree" story.... but, you know, with a cat and some carpeted plywood.) 

Maybe he just needs a really big rubber band. And THEN he'll be happy.

Sigh....