An Enrichment Toy the Cats Like

The human tries to keep her 4-legged companions mentally engaged and entertained, so the 2-legged is always on the lookout for an “enrichment” toy. Unfortunately, if you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know that the human has a pretty bad track record of finding enrichment toys the cats will play with for more than 15 minutes — if they play with it at all.

However, the 2-legged struck gold in late January when she purchased a well-made wooden box that has large holes around the sides and top meant to hold squishy balls. Well, the kitties very quickly removed the balls and then wondered what the human would do next. Their servant remembered reading something on the box’s cover that said snacks could be put in the box, so she poured in some raw freeze-dried nibblets. Oh my goodness, the cats all circled around the box and started poking paws inside to cuff snacks out and eat them. This has become a nearly nightly routine. (They might as well do a little bit of work for their treats.)

Wiley Taz Bird has learned to hang back a bit and watch. As soon as one of the bigger cats knocks a snack out one of the holes on the side, she darts in, steals the snack, and runs off to eat it. Meanwhile, the cat that did all the work is left with nothing. Shahjah has his own unique way of interacting with the box. He climbs on top of it and then tries to cuff snacks out. Often, all 4 of his paws are down inside the box.

The cats are entertained by the box and the human is entertained by the cats’ antics with the box. In fact, everyone enjoyed the toy so much that the human bought a second for downstairs, and then bought a third for their kitty cousin back East. Finally, an enrichment toy that does the job.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

WrestleMania

Heavyweight champ Pepe and Welterweight contender Shahjah seem to enjoy dusting it up a bit every day. The Grumpy Old Grandpa cat outweighs the Tiger Baby by at least 10 pounds/4.5 kilos, although Shahjah does a good job of holding his own.

Maybe Pepe misses Caesar, who was the only cat unwilling to kowtow to the Pepster and would give him a good thumping every time Pepe sought out a rumble. Shahjah, who desperately wants the attention and approval of the older cats, seems to enjoy it too.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Working to Cross-Purposes

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That’s Mac trying to drink water out of the kitchen water bowl. Her antics with water are legendary. Note that she is standing with left paw over right and head turned to the left as she contorts her body to drink over her shoulder. (You can also tell that the absorbent pad she’s standing on is soaked with liquid that the Watery One tossed out of the bowl before drinking.) For some reason, the Merkitty has just never been able to “grok” the concept of a water bowl. If you really want to mess with her mind, you put water in a clear bowl and watch the fun begin.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

No Box Goes Uninspected

Pepe has a storied love affair with boxes.

Very few boxes — regardless of size or condition — are allowed to enter this house that Moon-Face Boy doesn’t insist on checking out.

The ones he especially likes, the Pepster takes over and sleeps in.

He gets quite proprietary if another cat (like Mac) gets inside one of his boxes.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Training Tigers

Fireball has taken the Tiger Babies under his care and is teaching them not only how to be adult cats but how to be proper tigers. Just as Fireball followed Caesar everywhere and did everything Caesar did, including posing exactly as Caesar posed — whether sitting or lying down — Shahjah is Fireball’s shadow. And just like Caesar sought brief respites from Fireball, Fireball now seeks a bit of peace and quiet from the gregarious and chattery Shahjah and his slightly less clingy sister, Taz Bird. Then all the tigers are off racing around again, running on the cat equivalent of their tippy toes, or they’re all curled up together getting a bit of shuteye.

By the way, the tuxedo cat peering at the cuddling tigers is Mac, who appears a bit miffed that her pink puff and her sleeping buddy Fireball are occupied with cats other than her.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

When Morning Starts way too Early

Sometimes Mac and Fireball act like morning comes way too early for them. They skip breakfast and just lounge in the big pink puff as though moving would take far more effort than they could possibly muster.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.

Tiny Toys go Swimming

Someone has been removing some tiny new toys the meows received last month from the toy boxes and dunking them in the kitchen water bowl, then taking the soggy toy out and leaving it on the kitchen floor. To dry them out, the human has been clothes pinning them to a hanging basket full of vegetables.

The other morning, the two-legged found one very soggy toy still floating in the water bowl (which had mostly been emptied of water and yucked up with dirty feet) and another (also soggy) toy lying beside the bowl.

Both Mac and Pepe routinely stand in the kitchen bowl to take a drink and yuck up the water. And Mac regularly tosses water out of the water bowls and floods the floor…hence the elaborate arrangements meant to stop the tomfoolery.

As for who is taking the toys for a dunk, the human suspects the Tiger Babies — perhaps with initial instruction from the Merkitty. Cats…they definitely keep life interesting.

(c) Copyright 2023, PeggyMalnati. All rights reserved. Images my own.