Here's the Thing - Cats and String

Hi All!

Here is a big YEAH for the kitties this morning! They let me sleep until almost 7:00! Amazing!

Skor is still continuing his reign as the whiny kitty and throws in acts of destruction just to keep us on our toes. His latest destruction job? His FAVORITE toy. It is a fishing pole type toy with Mylar streamers. He always drags the thing around the house and the other day he brought it back to me . . . sort of. He only brought back the Mylar streamers - not the pole or the string - just the streamers. It took me about 15 minutes to hunt for the rest of the toy to see just what had happened.

Here is what I have pieced together - Skor took his toy out for a tour of the house and decided it needed to check out behind the toilet. The only problem is that the toilet room is rather narrow and the stick couldn't make the tight turn. Not one to be deterred, Skor kept tugging until something gave. The streamers came out of the plastic piece by which they are connected to the string and the rest of the toy remained in the toilet room.

Mystery solved.

Hubby, the king of the hot glue gun, glued the streamers back into the toy but not before I made a very interesting discovery.

Skor LOVES this particular toy. He has several others but this is his favorite of all times. In fact, he would prefer to play with this toy even if it doesn't have any streamers attached. He likes it when it is just the stick and the string.

And so does Miss Cleo.

Hubby and I have been a bit saddened by Miss Cleo's lack of playing over the past several months. Last night, I found the key. The stick and the string.

Now, she originally liked the Mylar streamers (fondly nicknamed Mr. Sparkly) but when Skor came in - she just laid there and watched him freak out chasing Mr. Sparkly. However, last night she was curled up to watch the nightly entertainment (Skor freaking out while chasing his toy) when suddenly, she pounced on the string, threw it up in the air and ran after it.

I was in shock. Remember, Miss Cleo had basically stopped playing like this a LONG time ago. Hubby wasn't too impressed but then again, he was watching Ohio State basketball so I am not even sure he even noticed. Wanting to see just how far Miss Cleo would take the playing - since she had had very brief returns to playing in the past - I continue to play with both cats and the stick with the string on it.

The two cats played very well together. Miss Cleo would watch as Skor ran like a crazy kitty after the string and, when he had caught it and was resting, she would take her turn chasing the string in a much more sedate, but still active, manner. Skor would watch until she had caught the string and had thrown it around a bit. Then he was ready to play again.

I kept this up for over a half an hour and only stopped because of MY arms getting tired - not because either cat wanted to quit.

This morning, after feeding the cats, I got out the toy (remember, it is just a stick with string on it) and BOTH cats played again. Eureka! I think I have found the secret. Who needs the streamers? Just trail the string around and both cats act like it is the best toy ever.

This will save us a lot of money in cat toys!

Trisha

Voice Update: Doing pretty well. I am still doing my massage. I have gotten into a routine of doing it each time I am in the car as well as during commercials when I am watching tv. The sessions are not very long but I do a lot of them so the time adds up. I think my voice is doing pretty well. I still have some issues with those unvoiced consonants but they are currently barely noticeable. Yeah!