May 27, 2001 - Sunday
Harry certainly likes to play with the cat, but as a toddler he has yet to master the subtleties of what makes a cat happy. Every now and then, Harry, usually following his mother or my lead and usually for a very brief time, is able to be gentle. However, most of the time, Harry uses one of two of his own tactics. If the cat is still, Harry will generally try to lay down on top of the cat, putting his upper chest across the cat's side or back. It's really about the same method as Harry finds works best with his stuffed animals, but it has only limited success with the living cat. At best, Paavo will allow this to happen for a few seconds before wiggling from Harry's clutches.

Harry's other approach is kind of like cat surfing. Actually, it's more like water skiing, because he will grab the cats tail - by either stalking the cat or grabbing it while it's going by - and then holds on while the cat pulls away. The good news is that, as a male cat, Paavo doesn't altogether mind having his tailed gently pulled and doesn't react at all violently to this. However, it does tend to send Harry to the floor as he tries to hang on and today Harry finally found the coffee table on the way down. It a first: he's never banged himself like that. Fortunately, beyond the initial horror that followed, for Harry and his parents - the only residual was a bit of a fat lip. Hopefully, this might act as something of a deterrent to further cat surfing.


Click for day after pictures of Harry's fat lip.


Comments, opinions?