Those of you who have read my blog for awhile may remember that many years ago, I taught Lily to ring a bag of bells for her food. Lily's a very smart kitty and the training process was remarkably quick. She even went a step further -- quite on her own -- and took to ringing a possum. Yep, you read that right. Possum. You can read more about it -- and see a video -- here and here.
Lily's bell-ringing skills even led to her first (and possibly only) 15 minutes of fame, as she was once featured on the website of Bell Outlet. As you might imagine, this was one of the highlights of my life. :)
Well, I'm sorry to report that Lily's incessant bell-ringing led to Spouse occasionally taking away her bell for long periods of time. And for awhile my life was so complicated that I didn't insist on bell-ringing.
Long story short, Lily became complacent. She began to expect food without bells. She sat in front of the fridge, waiting for it to somehow open. And it usually did! As time went on, she barely touched her bag of bells. And eventually she seemed to not remember what to do with it.
In short, it was a sorry state of affairs.
So this week I decided to refresh her memory. I placed her paw on the bag of bells, then gave her a treat. To my surprise (and relief), Lily remembered her old trick after about 15 minutes of practice. Soon she was back to jiggling her bag of bells. Confidently. Loudly.
And now incessantly. :)
Good girl. All is right with the world.
jp
2 comments:
Oh yes! That was the highlight of many people's virtual life! :-)
Thank Goodness she remembered how to do it! She might have starved....lol
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