The Face of Success, er, Pigeons

This post was originally published on my previous blog, but I thought it was so cute I wanted to share it again!

For the longest time CG was never a good jumper. It’s not a knock against the cutie pants, rather it was a fact. Because of his CH, his hind legs just didn’t have the strength or coordination for him to jump well. So instead, he’d get mostly everywhere by climbing.

Of course this changed a bit as he grew up. More exercise and playtime helped him work those muscles, and while he was still clumsy, his efforts were usually followed with greater and greater success.

So lesson learned — intentional, purposeful exercise helps CH kitties jump better, right?

Well not entirely. Check out this face:

That is the face of a CH cat who’s not thinking about how he just jumped on the bed, or how his jump was actually a propelled leap that was several feet long. That’s the face of a cat who’s looking at one of these:

Yes, a pigeon. Gross, I know.

See, in one of my past apartments, my bedroom windows were just two feet away from the boarded-up windows next door. And what I thought (and was probably right to think) was a disgusting mess of pigeons making their nests out of their own feces on those windows’ ledges turned out to be one of the best things ever.

To me, they were filthy, insect-coated, obnoxious nuisances. And to CG, they were engaging. They were so exciting in fact, that only days after we moved into the apartment he would often climb quickly, or even jump, onto my bed so he could see his beloved pigeons better. All he needed to hear was one pigeon coo, and he was off, like a flash, to go watch them.

All of the playtime in the world couldn’t have helped him learn to jump better than him having a reason of his own to do it on his own multiple times daily. And the best (and most interesting) part of all of this was that I noticed that when the pigeons were around he would jump onto the bed without thinking about it. But when he’d get on the bed to see me, he’d climb. It was incredible. It was almost like he didn’t consciously know he could jump.

So what does your cat love? Food? A special toy? Treats? You? Or maybe pigeons? What’s something that’s so precious to him that he’ll try anything, like jumping?

Granted this may not be for all CH kitties, but it definitely worked in this case. CG’s still not a master jumper, but it was amazing to see how far he progressed thanks to those pigeons.

Do you have a success story like this? Share it in the comments!