It's Sunday afternoon and my cat Harmony won't let me take my usual nap on the armchair in the living room. It isn't dinner time, so that's not the reason she was rubbing against me, meowing at me and poking me with her nose.
She wanted to play, and she wanted attention. So I flashed the little red laser dot until it looked like she was getting bored with it. By that time I had already given up on the idea of a nap and was at the computer. She left me alone for a bit, then I started to feel something hairy tickling my leg. I was being buttered up again.
This time she wanted me to take an old rolled-up magazine, poke her with it and make her jump for it. This is a cat's idea of fun. It is somehow intertwined with her putting her head into a large paper bag. When her head is in the bag, I'm supposed to poke her butt and her feet with the magazine. When she comes out of the bag I'm supposed to hold it up and make her jump for it, in between the various pokes. I have my friend Michelle to thank for this. She was the one who introduced Harmony to this game, and now Her Felineness expects me to play it, too.
This game requires a certain amount of skill on the part of the human, to avoid accidental bloodletting, but those of us who live with cats expect a certain number of accidents, anyway. It comes with the critter, especially if the human is fond of playing games like "paper bag and magazine" or tickling the kitty when she is trying to sleep, just to watch her twitch.
Unfortunately, I do not find these games as intellectually or physically stimulating as Harmony does. They do, however, afford me many opportunities to laugh at her. This is one thing that cats are definitely useful for: laughs. This is our secret. The kitties think we are laughing with them, when, in reality, we are subjecting them to things that we, as humans, would consider humiliating. Would you want someone to take your picture while you were lying spread-eagled on your back with everything showing? Well, okay ... MOST of us wouldn't. And if we did, we wouldn't want people laughing at us.
As soon as I can figure out how to use my new video camera (meaning as soon as I take it out of its wrapper and read the instructions), Harmony will become an automatic subject. Watch out for her on YouTube. She'll be the one with her head in a paper bag, being poked in the butt with a magazine.
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5 comments:
Cheap toys are the best. I remember Sebastian playing again and again with the ring from beneath the milk jug. Woo-hoo!!
Kitty games are no fun unless they're risky. The laser beam hame doesn't hold a candle to the bag and envelope game. Rolled up magazines don't count because the element of risk is almost nil.
Almost.
Agreed. Harmony's favorite toys, besides the paper bag, are pieces of rolled-up toilet paper, my hair bands, and whatever tubes, hairbrushes, or containers happen to be sitting on the window ledge behind the toilet when she gets in the mood to knock things to the floor. Sometimes I will be sitting in the living room and I will hear "bang" or "splat," and I will think to myself, "What is that cat up to now and will I have a mess to clean up?"
You poke her in your way and I'll poke her in my way. ;)
Chicken ;)
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