sofina is toast.

smudge hates our cleaning lady, sofina. that's well established.  it's become a war of escalation, and i'm afraid what will happen when he goes too far.

at first he just chattered and hissed.

then he started swiping at her.  so we gave her a spray bottle and told her to spritz him if he got fresh.

then the sprays didn't stop him. and one day, she was bent over picking something off the floor, when he climbed onto the bed and leaped off, landing on her back.

i started staying home when she was there, to keep an eye on him.  but i can't miss an afternoon of work every week. and i also can't hold him back -- he is very large and very strong. so we bought a lovely cage. big and roomy, we put a litter box in it, plus a bowl of ice water and some crunchies.

first he loved the cage. now he still likes it, except on friday afternoons. somehow he knows it's sofina day. (probably because that's the only day we've picked everything up off the floor so she can clean.) only then, when he sees us open the cage door, he hides under the bed. but as smart as he is, we usually get him in there.

so the cage worked. he just sat in there and watched sofina, occasionally hissing if she got too close.

then when she was near it, he would reach out and smack her. so she put a framed poster along the side where he grabbed at her.

then he started grabbing at her through the top of the cage.  so we covered it with blankets or pillows. but he still reaches through the blankets, or any little crack of vulnerability he can find.

so we bought a large, 4-panel, four-foot-high shoji screen, and we put that around the front and the other side of the cage. smudge is now enclosed on all sides: wall, poster, screen and screen.

today jeff just told me smudge has learned to reach out and knock the screen down.

UPDATE:  well, he did it. smudge finally got her. he reached out and slashed her hand. jeff said she put some bacetracin and a band-aid on it, but it's deep - almost bad enough to need stitches. this is ridiculous.

UPDATED UPDATE: sofina is done, she left for the day, i will apologize profusely next week and tell her she doesn't have to come within 3 feet of the cage from now on. hopefully that will be good enough and we won't be paying for her hand surgeon's kid's college education. jeff is home, and he let smudge out of the cage as soon as sofina left. smudge is now being super-cute and sweet to him. the little shit.