Do you have any idea what your animals are planning for 2013?

We don’t make resolutions around here.  I learned the power of goal setting  from everyone’s favorite business coach, Kevin Gifford and apparently this practice has spread to the rest of the household.  All week, I’ve been finding scraps of paper with goals written on them.

Here’s one I found in the bottom of the cats’ water bowl.

Things I’d like to accomplish in 2013, my first full year as a cat

• Stop letting Pickles pull out my whiskers and grow them long enough to brush the floor when I walk
• Become King of the Chickens by running up to them and scaring them at least once a week
• Figure out how to get toys and other small items out of the water bowl without getting my paws wet.

I can only surmise that these were written by Patience the Kitten.  He tends to be wordy.  I found another, one that probably belongs to Mr. Pickles, in the top of the cat tree where he sleeps.

Goals for 2013

• Finish pulling out Patience’s whiskers
• Clean the Food Bearing Monkey’s face once and for all
• Sleep under the bedcovers at least once

And there were more!  A member of the household found this one under a bed.

Plan for 2013

• Stop my Food Bearing Monkey from ever leaving the house again by refining guilt tactics.

1. Increase volume of lonely, pathetic meowing in the night.
2. Perfect technique of rubbing against other bipeds and shying away when petted.
3. Run downstairs and stare at my Food Bearing Monkey with big eyes to communicate a deficit of petting time whenever FBM comes home.

We suspect that was Harley.

I’ve been impressed at the household cats’ grasp of grammar and spelling!  We found one more, written in childish paw.

***  Convince Uncle Patience to let me ride on his back at least once in 2013, before I get too big.

That had to be Chessy the Kitten.  No one else would want to ride on Thundercat Patience’s back while he careens around the house, for fear of getting hurt!

I found a couple more scraps in the coop, this time with letters impressed into the paper with toenails.  Apparently, the arrival of two new chickens a couple weeks ago caused more excitement than I realized.

This was in the old coop, Chicken Shantytown.

1. Attempt to make friends with the newcomer, Big Delaware Chicken (Editor’s note: I think they are referring to Marshmallow, a 2 year old Delaware)
2. If #1 fails, eat Big Delaware Chicken
3. Resist abandoning Chicken Shantytown, despite abundance of snacks in the new coop

I knew they were determined to stay in the old coop, but I didn’t realize how determined!

And finally, I found this written on a bit of shell in the new coop, presumably by Marshmallow and Roxanne, the newcomers.

*** Figure out where the heck we are.

I guess it’s hard to have nothing more at your disposal than a tiny chicken head to figure out what’s going on in your life.  At least they have a goal.  It will keep them busy until 2014.

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