Rock-a-Bye Poppy

For a while now, I've been having a problem with my baby girl, Poppy. She's the sweetest little girl in the world. Unlike her sister, who pays attention to everything and comes when she's called, and does everything she's told, Poppy is a rebellious girl. She doesn't listen all that well. Like her sister, she's a flipper and a flopper. She loves to roll on the rug--back and forth and forth and back. She's a good lap cat at the end of the day and will sit quietly, but during the day? Not so much.

She also likes to bite -- everything. Not just me, but paper, boxes, desks, you name it, she bites it. She's not teething. She has passed her first birthday, but she still likes to BITE.

Recently I realized that there was a way to calm her. She will settle in my arms and I rock her like a baby. She purrs and purrs and then falls asleep. This is all very nice and loving ... until my arms and feet fall asleep. Then I have to put her down and she almost immediately jumps back on my lap. This makes it very hard to get any work done.

The girls chill under Mr. L's lamp.

Luckily, Mr. L has a 200 watt light bulb in his office. Under the light we've placed three cat beds. (We used to have more cats.) The girls often sleep under the warmth of that incandescent bulb. (We aren't going green with that lamp any time soon.) I also have a small oil-filled radiant space heater in my office and I keep a cushion next to it that's big enough to accommodate both girls. Now that the weather has turned, I'm hoping they will use it more and let me work.

It's not a terrible problem to have cats who love me and want to be with me. I just need to convince them that they need to change their timing.

What's your biggest pet problem?