It didn't take us long to realise what a clever Guido was. That is one of the great things about Siamese cats. He wanted to join in with everything that I was doing and when he thought I wasn't paying enough attention to him, the mischief started!
While I had to spend hours studying, Guido would sit on my desk, in front of me, and walk backwards and forwards over my keyboard. He didn't want to sit quietly on my knee. He wanted to type my assignments for me and do what I was doing. He was very creative with making up new words with a never ending combination of letters. This made studying very interesting indeed!
If this didn't provide enough attention for him, he would hop onto my book case and systematically knock the books off one by one. I thought he had knocked the first couple of books off by accident. But then I watched what he was doing. Guido was poking his paw behind each book and slowly nudging it to the edge of the shelf. He then gave a final nudge and watched over the edge, fascinated, until the book crashed to the floor. Then moved on to the next book. He carried on doing this until I picked him up off the shelf.
That was a mistake...he realised that I would stop whatever I was doing and pick him up if he did this. He soon learnt to climb the book shelves in the sitting room next to my bedroom and did the same thing. So in the middle of studying I would hear...crash...bang...silence...crash...bang, until I got up to investigate.
Then Guido learnt how to open cupboard doors and had a wonderful time exploring. But when he wanted more attention, simple exploration wasn't enough. When I was soaking in the bath he liked to sit on the edge of it. But he soon got bored and found it more fun to open the bathroom cupboards and empty them of all the towels and flannels.
He would also empty the toilet paper out of the toilet cupboard and bat the rolls around the floor. We often found the cupboards empty and the contents in a heap on the floor. Luckily he never discovered the joys of shredding paper!
Guido also developed a fascination with emptying drawers. Even if a drawer was only open enough for him to fit his paw through, he managed to get things out. Socks, underwear, anything he could grab, all ended up on the floor. We had to remember to keep drawers tightly shut.
When ever I played the piano Guido loved it. He would hop up on the stool next to me for a little while and watch and listen. Then, still sitting by my side, he would press the keys down with his paws one at a time. We played some interesting duets. The only thing was that I laughed so much it disturbed his music playing and he would abruptly stop playing looking offended lol.
Sometimes he would then hop onto the piano keys and walk backwards and forwards on them while I was playing. And he also helped me turn the pages of music. At other times he was just happy to sit on top of the piano and watch and listen to me play.
In later years Guido learnt that the quickest way to get attention was to stand on his hind legs and tap me repeatedly on the shoulder. You could almost see him saying "excuse me...but 5 minutes is long enough at the computer...I want you to play with me now...and I mean now...please." He was so cute.
To be continued...
Big hugs xxx