Getting too Old to Deal with a Cat’s New Tricks

So TonyDanza has really been showing his personality lately.
He is still snuggling under the covers any chance he gets.
He now eats his food like potato chips. He will scoop 3 or 4 pieces onto the ground, eat them and then scoop some more.
But his biggest thing is that he desperately wants to stay in the room at night instead of getting kicked out when I go to sleep. He figures that he’ll hide under the bed and be very quiet. 

Now last night, Matt came to stay as he had a Bismarck meeting this morning. We went out and pre-celebrated his birthday. Had dinner and then came home. I went to bed early, being on central time, he came later. He had prevented TonyDanza from coming in the room to avoid the “cat luring out” session. He laid down and commented about the window open in the living room and that it was cold. I asked him to please shut that. He got up, and didn’t shut the door when he left.

Now, for those of you that don’t know TonyDanza, he’s a cat of opportunity. Unlike Lola, he didn’t feel the need to watch Matt close the window. He instead saw that Matt opened a door and hustled himself right in and under the bed, despite my snickering.

Now re-enter Matt who has realized what has happened, which brings forward more snickering from me. Now we have a few tactics to try to get TonyDanza out.
1. Open the catfood closet
2. Open the fridge
3. With fridge open, shake a bag of cheese
4. Grab a treat container, but to avoid rewarding him, we don’t give him treats.
Now Matt tries each of these, but alas, the orange tabby doesn’t come out from the bed.
More snickering.
Matt figures out a new tactic, he puts cat food on the floor (simulating the sound of treats hitting the floor). TD bolts out and all I hear is “Sucker, that was cat food!” 

Best meal: Spicy Chicken Tortellini at Bistro

“Hard to admit you’ve almost been outsmarted by a plump orange tabby.” - ALM