The Squirt Bottle

I've had to introduce the squirt bottle to Shadow. It's really a plant mister, with a top that has two settings, mist and stream, like Windex. It contains plain water in a bulb-shaped blue plastic jar. The stream setting works better for my purposes.

Shadow launched one of her attacks on Bella this morning, and I had the Squirt Bottle at the ready. I got her, and she ran under the crib, but I wanted her out of my room completely, so I got her again, in the side. Success! She is the ultimate moving target, though. I am surprised I hit her at all.

Bella long ago learned the purpose of the bottle, so if she is doing something bad, like biting the calves of my legs as I walk down the hall, on scratching on my wooden closet doors, I squirt her. Usually she runs away at the mere sight of it. Also, if I say, "I'm going to get the squirt bottle," and open the linen closet door, she stops and regards me with extra-huge green eyes. She knows.

Usually, with Bella, I don't need to use it more than once or twice a year, but now it's on my dresser, like a small blue sentinel.