This might actually mean two interlocking things: that the cat wants this very much, and they’ve drawn on their legal skills to justify another way of doing it.
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Maybe we caught the cat climbing the back of our favorite chair, and we tell them not to do that. We come back in the room to find them perched on top of that chair again. Before we decide the cat is being defiant, we might discover that the cat is now jumping to the top of the chair, not climbing it.
And that, as the cat knows, and knows we know, is something completely different.
The cat wants to sit on top of our favorite chair because it’s a great lookout spot, and also because it’s our favorite chair. They feel close to us when they are on top of our chair, breathing in our scent, and are sure to be noticed by us when we come to sit in it. They can catnap, keep an ear out for events, and look forward to the enjoyment of our head near theirs.
They have agreed not to climb the back of the chair. Isn’t that what we objected to?
In fairness, we have to admit the cat has a point.
Often, we are objecting to the way they are doing something more than the result they are driving for.
If our cat is smart enough to come up with a better way that circumvents our objection, our best reaction is to laugh, admit we’ve been outplayed, and let the cat have what they want.
It’s not only fair. It lets the cat know that we, too, understand what fair means.
Cats have a sense of fair play comparable to that of a nine or ten year-old child; the age when humans become cognizant of fairness, equal treatment, and a sense of individual value and worth.
There’s nothing a cat likes better than a sense of individual value and worth.
Sometimes the cat wants something they really shouldn’t have, or are doing something that is not going to work out, and we should continue our objections to the whole idea. In these cases, we should try to come up with a substitute for the need that the cat is expressing, explain “yours and mine,” and continue to redirect the cat’s energy towards the substitute.
Sometimes we can come up with an alternate way of giving the cat what they want, and reap the rewards of their gratitude for our understanding of, and respect for, their wishes.
Remember that a cat is not motivated by malice or an assertion of dominance. When it seems that way, it is really fear, or the expression of a natural drive, that is being expressed with their misbehavior. Cats want partnerships and having their needs fulfilled.
So the next time the cat uses a “loophole” in our law, find for the plaintiff, and let them have what they want.
They have earned it.
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