As Clean as a Kitten Can Get

Here is a list of things my kitten loves:

1. Climbing my curtains
2. Sleeping under the covers
3. Scratching my school bag
4. Chasing her tail
5. Leaping from my bed to the back of my desk chair
6. Dancing across the radiators
7. Being made into the bed each morning
8. Watching me shower

Abbey is obsessed with the shower. Each morning she comes bounding into the bathroom the second she hears the faucet turn on. She hooks her two front paws over the edge and watches the water rumble into the tub while I get the temperature just right. When I switch over to the shower, she scoots herself onto the ledge and takes up residence between the liner and the curtain.

When I am finally in the shower and soaping up, that's when Abbey peeks her head around the corner and settles in to watch me shower. She can't get over the things I do in there. She's especially impressed when I shave my legs.

Well, over the weekend Abbey got a little too impressed. She was beside herself with excitement over an unexpected night shower--I was getting ready to go to stuff myself with sauerkraut and kuchen at the department's Oktoberfest party--and she got a little too antsy. One of her paws slipped in some water and then she was in the tub and being pelted with water. It was an unlucky time for that to happen, too, because I was at the point in my shower where I was washing my face, and I'd soaped my eyes up good and was still washing them out when I felt a tangle of fur and claws tumble into my legs. I shrieked. Abbey shrieked. I scrubbed at my eyes. Abbey lunged out of the tub.

When I had stopped the water and gotten a towel around me, I peeked my head out of the bathroom and found Abbey sitting across the hall in the spare room. She was shivering and looking sad. Poor kitten. Poor, wet, spiky kitten.

And let me tell you this: she did not like the towel-down she got after that picture was taken. She didn't like that one bit.