
I'm much happier NOT thinking about manipulation, so I tell myself "not to go there". Anything negative which I can't or won't do anything about just isn't worth thinking about.

Issey finds my studio to be much more interesting than his toy-box. (It's a GOOD toy box, with toys rotated so there will always be something 'new')
It seems to be a "mouth thing". He is either loudly letting me know what's on his mind (not enough food), or using his mouth as a vacuum cleaner! He forages for food, yes, but he also loves my art supplies. Tiny silk flowers, jewelry chains, stickers, brushes, pens, even bits of paper he redistributes all over the house after getting them down off my work table or removing them off my bulletin board. It is beginning to annoy me, but then I remind myself that he is going to be all grown soon enough! In a few days he will be 10 months old, and every day I have had him I've thought how incredibly cute and how incredibly smart he is. :-) It's not that I don't think as highly of my other kitties....It's just that he does "cute" so well, and is constantly with me.