Lamp Redux

You'll recall not too long ago, I was discussing Leela's use of our bedside lamp to wake us up in the morning.

Well, cat science marches onward. And a couple weeks ago, Leela hit on an innovation. Instead of knocking the lamp so it whacked against the wall, she shifted her force vector 90 degrees clockwise and the lamp fell directly into Elisa's face. The increase in our response was dramatic.

Recognizing that this was much more efficient than the old process, she did it again the next morning. We don't actually use the lamp all that much, and so we ended up sticking the lamp in a closet. (I know, I know, but it's just easier for us to adapt to her than the other way around. This is a principle that shapes the world.)

Then, a couple days ago, Elisa decided she wanted to read in bed for a while, so she got the lamp out, replaced the light bulb Leela had managed to break, and put it back.

Leela got all excited, immediately sitting and watching it from the floor and then from the bed. She recognized it and knew what to do with it. And indeed within a couple minutes she had tentatively knocked it into the wall. A test run. So when Elisa was done with the lamp, she unplugged it and put it back in the closet. Leela was flustered. She was sitting there on the floor, looking up at the now empty nightstand, and we could just see the frustration in her face. She was actually looking around for it. She knew it was gone and that therefore she had one less way of getting what she wanted. The cat's getting smarter...