The dry goods were sitting on the kitchen worktable this afternoon when FedEx rang my doorbell, and, of course, I didn’t put the box down and finish putting away the groceries first. I just wanted to verify there were two unopened boxed copies of the software and that the receipt was right … and make a quick blog post to express my glee. That couldn’t have taken me more than two minutes. During that time, I was sitting at my desk, a few feet from the open doorway to the kitchen. I heard no commotion in the kitchen, and I wouldn’t have expected to hear a commotion from the kitchen, because the cats know they are not allowed on that table. All other surfaces can be theirs, but not that table (and the stove and kitchen counters). They know this. They learned this when they were tiny little kitties.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the kitchen, after an absence of mere moments, to find Myu smack dab in the middle of the dry goods on the kitchen worktable and Ronin half on the table and half in the window sill. Can you say BUSTED! They totally looked busted too … all big eyed and frozen in their tracks with just a hint of adorable lingering behind those eyes. See, they do know they are not supposed to be on that table, but for some reason they had a slip in sensibility.

Ronin vanished immediately. I didn’t see or hear him take off, but he must have taken off somewhere. One second he was there, staring at me like a deer in headlights. The next moment, he was nowhere to be seen. He’s very good at disappearing.

Myu, on the other hand, decided to play the Cute Card and started rolling around on the table, in the middle of the groceries, mewing like a baby. Well, that was the wrong choice. It only bought her an extra second before the hand-waving and “bad kitty” noises started. SHe eventually realized that perhaps exiting the area would be a good idea.

I have no idea what I bought that could have attracted them enough to completely through caution to the wind and get on that table. There was nothing new or unusual … just the same old basic canned goods and what have you that sometimes sit on the worktable for half a day without any cats caring one way or the other about it. In fact, I set the grocery bags on the floor while unpacking them, and the cats couldn’t care less about any of it (even the meat products). So I am a little surprised Myu felt the need to get up there and rummage around. I am not at all surprised that Ronin was in the process of following her, because that’s what he does. She’s most definitely the brains in the outfit. She masterminds the unauthorized cat activities, and Ronin just follows along like the big dumb brute he is (he’s cute, but really, really dumb).

Naturally, both of them have been following me around all afternoon being just as cute as they can possibly be. At the moment, Myu is in my lap shedding fine black hairs all over my keyboard (and everything else), and Ronin is under my chair licking my big toe. I suppose I’ll accept their apologies, but I swear if they get on that table again, we will go through the whole training process again, and they are not going to like it.