Over the last few months, Heidi taught our cat Tibby to ring a bell when she wants to out on the deck for a little fresh air and cat grass nibbling. Now that she's got it, Tibby rings the bell an aggravating number of times. Recently we've noticed that she doesn't even go outside every time we open the door, and so it has occurred to us that ringing the bell is a much broader form of communication.
Perhaps when she dashes downstairs first thing after the alarm goes off, she is ringing it to say "Good Morning." And when she jingles the bell right when we're about to leave the house, she could be saying, "Don't go!" or "Come back soon!" When she rings it at mealtime, the message is definitely, "Yay! Hurry up with that!"
We laughed about her insistent ringing with our friend when she stayed with us this weekend. "Maybe you should have bells all over the house," she suggested. "It might clarify her intentions!"
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