That’s my basket!!!

A cat needs a place of his own.  A place to sleep, nap or just chill.  But who knew that, with multiple baskets around, a cat actually knows which basket is his?

Mickey, Charlotte and Gabriel do.  They each have their own basket.   Big enough to stretch out in, soft enough to ensure sweet dreams.  When I say “their own basket” I mean just that. 

Mickey’s basket sits in an armchair and none of the others dare to go near it.

Charlotte’s basket is positioned on top of the wall unit.  She likes higher ground.

Gabriel’s basket rests at the foot-end of my bed.

For the longest time everything went fine.  They each had their own sleeping place and everyone was happy.  Until the other day …

Gabriel curled up in the basket on top of the wall unit.  When Charlotte caught sight of him it was clear she did not like what she saw.  She furiously hissed at him, hit him over the head a couple of times and said something in cat language I didn’t understand.  Gabriel did and slunk out of the basket, clearly with a guilty conscious.

Before you start feeling sorry for poor Gabriel, he wasn’t quite so “poor” later that night.  Mickey curled up Gabriel’s basket on my bed, and Gabriel didn’t like that.  He didn’t like that at all. 

He sneaked up on Mickey and in no uncertain terms let him know “That's my basket!!!”  

There was spitting and hissing and some quite colorful language.  As if that wasn’t enough, Gabriel started hitting Mickey.  Mickey hit back and for a few seconds I had two prize ring fighters on my bed.  In the end Mickey vacated the basket, which Gabriel promptly took possession of.

To sum it up … Gabriel isn’t welcome in Charlotte’s basket, Mickey isn’t tolerated in Gabriel’s basket, and none of them have even tried to jump in Mickey’s basket.

And Chanel, the fourth cat, you might wonder.  Chanel doesn’t like baskets, she prefers boxes.  Whether it's the lid of a jigsaw puzzle box, a shoebox or any other type of box, if it's make out of cardboard Chanel will try to get into it.  Even if doesn't quite fit.