One of the many containers he’s managed to get into.

***Congratulations to Nicole, winner of the Oprah Magazine giveaway!***

The other day I watched as my cat squeezed his wet little nose into the spout of a cat food box. When he couldn’t fit his whole head he tried with his front paw. Then the other paw. He studied the frustrating box and then a thought occurred to him, and he knocked the whole thing over. A few kernels of cat food fell out and he chased them all down and devoured them. Then he laid down on his side and sort spooned the box while trying to nuzzle his face deeper into the spout.

All this effort when there was a heaping bowl of the very same cat food right next to him. I wondered why he had to make it so difficult, and continued to watch and laugh.

That got me thinking. Does my cat ever watch me and wonder why I’m doing things the hard way? 

On more than one occasion I’ve caught him staring at me quizzically when I’m stumbling around in the morning trying to get ready for work at an ungodly hour. He’s probably thinking, “hey there’s a bed right there. Why not take a cat nap?”

When I’m cooking dinner he sits in the sink and watches me chop an onion. I know he’s looking at the raw streak and thinking, “helloooo dinner’s right there. What’s with all the extra fuss?”

He’s continuously tried to pare down my wardrobe by peeing, scratching, and shedding all over my favorite outfits. Deep down I know he does this so that I don’t have to waste time wondering what to wear. In his mind he doesn’t understand why I bother with clothes at all.

It does seem like we make our lives unnecessarily difficult. Sometimes I do feel like my cat struggling to get food out of the box when there’s a full bowl right next to me. That’s when I have to remind myself that I already have everything I need.