Bingo!

 Once I decided I was going to stay in Virginia for a while, I moved out of the summer host family's house and into a house with a group of friends. One of the guys, Larry, had a 1 year old cat. He and his brother were the only siblings left of a litter of six. The owner's 3 year old daughter named them: Happy Birthday (nicknamed Happy) and Bingo Was His Name Oh (nicknamed Bingo). Bingo lived with us.

Bingo was part Maine Coon and quite biddable. I would sneak into Larry's bedroom once I knew he'd fallen asleep and snatch Bingo right out of his arms and take him to my bed to sleep with me. Often, I would wake up in the morning and Bingo would be gone. A quick investigation would find him back in bed with Larry, seemingly waiting patiently for me to come get him. (At least, that's the story I'm sticking with.)

When Larry moved to Colorado, he asked me to keep Bingo until he got settled. A few weeks later he came back to get him. That was a no.

Bingo was motivated by food. He loved food so much, I had to take the gravity dry cat food dispenser away because he wouldn't stop eating the food. He would just sit at the food bowl and eat and eat and eat. After that fiasco, he got fed twice a day with additional treats for tricks. That restricted diet turned out to be just the motivation he needed to perform like a circus animal.

Bingo was able to sit with no problem; that trick happened fast with the usual training method of holding the treat over his head so that when he looks up to keep the reward in his eyesight his rump goes down... Voila! Next he learned to give me his paw. And then the other one. We moved on to lie down - easy. But roll over, that was hard. Until he lost some weight, he had a hard time rolling his significant belly over. He had to build momentum by rolling a little at a time over and over until he could successfully get his belly to the other side. He kept at it though to get that one measly treat at the end.

But my favorite trick was when he learned to jump into my arms when called. I had treats stashed all over the house so I could reward his behavior. All I had to do was call him and pat my shoulder and he would jump up. I loved that trick.