A Step Ahead

There's something about the third step in our house.  Pre- puppy it was used as a stop gap for stuff that was going upstairs from downstairs.  The kids sit on it to tie up their shoelaces, I use it to tug on my boots every morning.  Before Muttley, Lapcat regularly used it as an inconvenient lounging step over which you launched yourself at great peril either up or down the staircase trying to avoid her outstretched paw which sometimes, for a little feline laugh, might have claws that suddenly spring out and swipe you on the ankle.  And then of course it has been used, over the years as the Naughty step, where badly behaved children sit for their time out, with miserable faces and clenched fat little fists until they have done their penance...

All of this does not really add up to the fascination that Muttley has for the third step - but almost from day 1, he has adopted it.  Give him a treat, and there it is eaten.  During wild and noisy play with the boys, that is where he takes his ball, and that is where (much to Lapcats disgust) he lounges, surveying the chaos that he has left behind once he has shredded a dropped tissue on the floor below...

This morning I was in a bit of a rush, having had to do a school run, then a meeting and then back home to do some work (a delayed project that really I couldn't put off any more), and having cooked some bacon for the boys breakfast I decided to leave the remaining three pieces to cool down, perhaps to have chopped up in a salad for lunch (if I ever got round to it).  Like a responsible puppy parent I left the plate of congealing bacon far back on the counter where Muttley had no hope of getting it, and disappeared upstairs after the usual morning crisis - in this instance a lost school tie...

On coming downstairs, and into the kitchen, I noticed Lapcat sitting on the counter by the plate, washing behind her ears with a satisfied smile, and Muttley licking his chops.  Two of the three bits of bacon had disappeared...

 I have a feeling that maybe the third step may have to come back into use as a Naughty step once more...