Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Ball? Ball? Ball?

So, passing through the kitchen, I turn on the electric tea kettle and walk away. It'll take a while to heat, and instead of standing there, I head over to the doorway to my husband's office, to talk to him.

Kili sees me, hops off my husband's lap, and comes around to the base of the chair. When she sees I'm watching her, she crouches down, does a full wiggle-butt followed by a leaping pounce onto my right foot. Before I can even react, she runs between my legs, and off. I turn, going "What in the world?"

...and find her sitting, facing the garage door, looking back over her shoulder at me.

"All right, cat, I got it." I walk over, and let her into the garage. As I shut the door, I hear the kettle click off, so I walk back into the kitchen...

and find Ashbutt sitting patiently at on the floor right in front of the tea kettle, with his latest string toy. He looks at me, looks at the toy. Looks at me, looks at the toy, bats the toy tentatively... and looks back at me.

"All right, cat, I got it. But I'm making my tea first." So I do, and then I play chase-the-string-toy for a minute or two. Then I let Kili back in, as she's satisfied everything in the garage is still in order, and head back to my computer. I sit down, sip my tea, and hear a thump.

In the doorway to my office, and there's a great mass of black fur, two bright eyes, and a red string toy...

Yeah, dogs don't have a monopoly on "Out? Out? Out?" or "Ball? Ball? Ball? Ball?" at all. Excuse me, I need to go play chase-the-string. Again. And again.

5 comments:

  1. Why people say "dumb animals" I don't understand at all. My kitty has always been able to communicate either by sitting there looking at you, or just yowling appropriately. Cat is the only alarm clock I ever had that doesn't have a snooze button. He really hates it when you sit in any chair that he is claiming that day.

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  2. A group I know of has a snake or three. Or at least one the group does. One of them related that they had been all sitting on a couch, watching TV and petting a snake draped across their laps. One of them stopped to do something or other (look up something in a guide, fiddle with remote, take a drink... something).. and the snake's tail came up, wrapped a bit around her wrist and guided it back to the petting position. "You're not supposed to stop."

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  3. Suz - yeah, cats may not speak words (at least most cats), but they certainly get the point across with pointed looks!And it's hard to sleep through an alarm clock that decides they're going to groom you and purr loudly, and flat jump on your bladder when the former two don't work...

    Orvan - hah! I hadn't heard of a snake doing that before, but I am not surprised!

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  4. Ashbutt is a dog in catskin... :-D

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    1. Daughter number two had quite the reptile collection. They were great pets - easy keepers, just throw in a thawed mouse once a week. When they escape, they always went to the same place, a dark drawer (unfortunately her sister's underwear drawer). Best reason:MIL refuses to stay in a house with snakes. When daughter left for college, I kept the snakes.

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