Mirror Cat

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned that Leo hates mirrors. The first time I ever heard him growl was at a mirror. I've showed him a hand mirror on occasion, and he always gets all alert and a little growly at the 'cat' in there. I wondered if it was because it looked like a large Star... They are fairly close to the same color after all. Whatever the reason, he does not like mirror kitty!

This hasn't been an issue because we don't have many mirrors where he can get at them. The one in the bathroom where he sits on the counter to get a drink bothers him a little, but the towel rack and towel block the view while he's face first in the glass.

Everything changed last week though. We got a beautiful set of cabinets with glass doors and mirrors in the back. Oh they were so pretty! Used, from goodwill, but just exactly what I wanted. One of them was missing a little handle, but that's easily replaceable. Let me digress for a moment before getting back to Leo.

When we got the cabinets, we weren't quite sure where they were going to end up. It was late, we were hungry, and we just wanted them in the house. My brother in law and niece 2 helped get them in the house and temporarily set along the same wall as the TV. The second one wasn't back far enough so Greg went to move it backwards by kind of bear hugging it, leaning into himself and walking it back. Forgetting that the door was glass.. He barely moved it when the whole cut glass door shattered!

It was just a little devastating.. Not even completely in the house. Sigh. We're trying to figure out the manufacturer to see if we can get a replacement, but so far, no luck. This weekend we moved the cabinets to where they will probably stay. We clipped them together and they look great, except for the missing door. Ok, back to Leo!

Just about every afternoon, Leo comes tumbling downstairs from his all day nap and wants to sit on me. I always always always push aside the laptop and accommodate him. I can't ruffle him up a lot or go nuts petting him because what he really wants is to settle in for a post-nap snooze. He does this by stomping around in a circle on my chest and/or tummy depending on how I'm sitting.

He's gotten very distracted while in his circle stomp over the last few days and I finally realized what was going on. If he's in the right position, he can see the mirror cat in the cabinet! It won't stop staring at him! I wave at it, showing him how friendly it can be. But he doesn't like it. He will either take off, not wanting to look at mirror cat, or he will give it the back of disrespect and try to get his snooze despite the rude cat looking at him.

Sometimes he will peek back at it, but it's always always staring back! This state of affairs cannot continue. This intruder must be shown that he is not wanted! So today Leo, heart in his throat, went over to give that bad mirror cat a talking to! Or at least to get a closer look at him.

I'm not sure if they made peace or not, but after a long session of checking him out, Leo decided to live and let live. Until tomorrow probably..

Alright Mirror Cat, I think it's time you and I had a little talk..

 (note the ears of annoyance)

What's the matter, got nothin' to say for yourself?

(assessing the idea of jumping on the top... I hope he forgets about it because while I have plans to make a kitty shelf above it, right now it's full of wires and the top half of the light fixture!)

Distracting me by tempting me to jump is not going to work.. I wonder if I could make it in one leap..

Mom, I've given this guy hate eyes, laser eyes, and a manly growl, he's not responding! Does that mean I'm top cat over him?

I think so, Leo, I think so.