what to do . . .

I finally have something to say that's not about Gaius. But it's not any better. In fact, it's worse. It's my cat. I love Boots, I do. But he's driving me crazy. I am having a hard time admitting that the cat is on my nerves because I'm sure Neal will be gloating, and then the poor cat is just going to get picked on even more without my sticking up for him.

As I'm typing, he's trying to nudge my computer off my lap so he can attack the strings on my pants. He also likes to scratch the back of the couch (thank goodness he has no claws), he cries in the middle of the night, he keeps dropping his toys on the Little Man's blanket, sneaking in Gaius' room during naptime . . . but here's the real problem: he has a new bad habit of knocking the water out of his bowl. This was a favorite past time of his when he was a kitten, but it's come back in full force the last few weeks. How many times a day can I really refill his water dish because he had to push it around the floor? It may not even be the extra work for me that I find so annoying, as much as the awful scratching sound the bowl makes when he pushes it. It's the sound my cat disobeying me after I've insisted for years that he's not a bad cat. It may not sound like a big deal, and maybe it's not so much the water that's bugging me. But it's that I've actually come to the realization that he's annoying. And I hate it when I've been insisting something, and then discover that Neal has been right all along.

So how do I make my cat less irritating?