August 5, 2005, 11:18pm

Shirley and Larry are out because their son has an emergency and is in the hospital for a surgery in his hand. Hope he will be OK.

Was sleeping then Henry (the cat in the house) came to me. Well, cats probably won't come to you unless they're hungry. So I gave him food but he's still following me. He even jumped onto my bed cooing. Strange.

Then I was in the bathroom blowing my hair and he went into the bathtub for water! OK, that must be the problem.

Once I read a cartoon about psychologists doing learning experiments to train rats. But from the rats' perspective, human beings (at least psychologists) are trained to give them food. When they push a button, lower a lever, run the maze... human beings "learn" to give them food.

So now, Henry is training me to feed him and give him water, to make this uncivilized human being to understand what he needs. He is not coming to me when he doesn't need me (no positive reinforcement). But when needs arise, he would jump onto my bed to coo. See, he went into the bathtub to drink water only when I was there. He wanted me to know and showed me the problem! When he's full, he simply rubs my leg and leave the kitchen. It's like he's saying, hey, thanks. I'm full. Now leave me alone.