Monkey In Charge

I never thought that I would let a cat be in charge of my house. My million dollar cat Dakota, who actually has many names, like Chunky Monkey, Monkey, Kota, Devil and many more, does just that. He is definitely in charge around here. But I suppose since he has been through so much in the past, I can forgive his antics!



I have actually never seen a cat quite like Dakota. He is very loyal to us, wait, aren't dogs the ones that are supposed to be loyal? I never said he was normal! When my OH and I are sitting around and relaxing, with my OH in his recliner, and me on the couch, Dakota will jump up on my OH's lap and demand to be petted with both hands. Then he jumps over to me on the couch, and demands to be petted by me with both hands, then he jumps back to my OH to be petted by him, and this back and forth can go on for a long time. Like I said before, he is not normal. If we have company over, he will do his jumping back and forth act with us, but never with anyone he doesn't know.



Dakota never figured out how to lay on a human's lap. He will lay down, but his butt ends up on your chest, with his broken tail in your face. He isn't much of a lover, but he does give me kisses. If I walk by him and say "kiss", he will kiss my forehead. I require monkey squeeze's everyday, and he very much tolerates them, but if I happen to squeeze too hard, he'll very quietly meow, which is the only time he does meow.



Dakota likes to go "fishing". All of our cats have been fascinated by our fish aquariums when they were kittens, but they all eventually grew out of it, except Dakota. To this day, he will sit below the fish aquarium and jump up and "slap" the fish. Besides fishing from the ground, Dakota fishes from above. He will jump up on top of the fish aquariums and slide half way down and "slap" the fish from that angle. When he is done, he just slides down to the ground. We have two 125 gallon fish aquariums, and one of them has a 2 foot Arrowana in it, with some extremely large Plecostamus's. The other one has tons of African Cichlids, which are very active. In between the 2 fish tanks is our 46" flat screen t.v. on a stand. Dakota will be on one fish tank, and walk across the very narrow t.v., to the other fish tank. I always worry that his chunky butt will do something to that very expensive t.v.! It's like watching gymnastic's in the Olympics. Will he make it all the way across? Will he lose his balance? Will he fall?



In the winter, he sleeps on the DVR in our bedroom. The heat that comes from it must be very inviting. In the summer, he sleeps on the bed in the guest room, where he moves everything around just how he likes it, even if that means pushing the pillows onto the floor.



I play peek-a-boo with him. If he is on the side of the couch, I will put my head down below the arm of the couch, and slowly raise it up until our eyes meet, once we lock eyes, I duck real quick. He does the same, raises and ducks his head. Then I slowly raise my head up again. He eventually jumps up and slaps me in the forehead, but with an open paw, no claws. I actually get scared playing this game with him now. He has gotten way too quick. But I just have to do it, because he loves it. I have started asking my OH "where's he at?", since I can't see when I have my head ducked.



Dakota is the mean one, which is probably why he was attacked by a dog years ago, he won't back down from anything. He has. no. fear, not even of the vacuum! He has a thing for Morgan, and it isn't the "love" kind of thing. She is terrified of him, so she doesn't like coming into the house. He will chase and attack her. She will not stick up for herself, which surprises me, since she is the killer out of all the cats. But she won't mess with Dakota.



I might let a monkey run my house, but it is so worth it! I wouldn't want it any other way. Now does this look like the face of a monkey in charge?