The Game of Cat and Chaz

[desperance]

I dunno. You do your best to be a good cat-slave, and somehow it's just never good enough...

What it is, is he's just too proficient at those cat-games like chase-the-string. He has a bootlace, it's long and red and he's very fond of it, he carries it about. But I do my duty and take one end and trail the other for him to pounce on - and he does that, and the trailing end is instantly skewered by a claw, and that's it. He never misses, it never slips through his paws and gets away; as a game, it's really not up to snuff.

What's best is dragging something for him to pounce on, and then snatching it away into mid-air at the moment of his pounce. He over-hurtles, inevitably - but then he turns and leaps and snatches it out of mid-air, all in the same movement. He is genuinely extraordinary as a jumper, I've never known a cat so agile in the air; but again, he never misses, and his claws never let go, so then he's got it. Game over. You can negotiate for the release of the toy, but that usually leads to your hand becoming toy-substitute, which is just a lead-in to his real favourite game, Pouncing on Chaz, which actually he will cheerfully play for ever; it's just that again I let him down, I wimp out too soon, often even before I'm actually bleeding...

In other news: you have a good day, you have a bad day. Yesterday, eleven pages, 3500 words, plus some proofreading, boundless energy; today, two pages, 500 words, and an awful lot of desultory slumping. I am conspicuously Not Well, got up with a headache and the lungs are no better, but I've been like this all week, so that's no excuse. Now I'm going out to commit socialisation, so that really is the end of work for the day. Bleah.

Comments

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

How about a cat laser toy? He can't catch it but you can make him think he has. When he pounces on it you turn it off. When he rolls his paw over to see what he has caught beneath it you turn it on and make it run away.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Such a good idea...! Thank you.

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Your local pet supply store should have nice low powered ones you can get pretty cheap. Also, at www.catsplay.com I just saw this cool box with a couple holes in it that contains a pingpong ball. The designers actually used the phrase "to torment" in the product description.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

You need a laser pointer.

Seriously. The red dot machine is the ultimate cat chase toy -- it's equivalent to an infinitely long piece of string and they can only pounce on the very end of it!

It's less effective on ancient cats, but even so, I've managed to get one or other of the Two Fat Ladies chasing their own tails until dizzy from time to time. With a young cat, it's quite spectacular ...

(One warning: get a low-powered one, and NeverNeverNever shine it directly at the cat's face. But as long as you know how to play safe, hours of fun are guaranteed.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

That whooshing sound? That's me, off to the shops. Wondering where in fact you buy low-powered laser pointers...?

[autopope.livejournal.com]

My local asian corner shop of phone fascias sells 'em for about a fiver.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Some friends of mine have a laser pointer. Gets 'em every time.

I spent the morning watching kittens play 'Pouncing On My Brother/Sister From a Great Height.'

[desperance.livejournal.com]

...in a yurt. I know, I read. I went "awwww..." Kittens get me every time.

And yup, I'm getting a laser pointer. I'm really taken with the notion. Which prob'ly means he'll sneer at it, unless his genes get the better of him...

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me why we don't have cats. I prefer to be the superior species in our household, thank you very much, and I know I am now the rabbit has gone to Teletubby land. Guineau Pigs aren't as much fun but they waste a lot less time.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I never, ever got the point of guinea pigs. Except as an ingredient. At least rabbits lollop about a bit. (Actually we used to take my sister's rabbit for walks to the park, on a lead, where she would climb trees - but she was exceptional.)

I have very low self-esteem and a massive inferiority complex; Barry helps to sustain the status quo in this. That's his contribution to the household welfare.