Anyone with a cat knows two things: 1. these fuzzy love lumps are a delight to have in the home or garden, and 2. they have peculiarities that make them endlessly fascinating.

I don’t need to explain the first point, do I?

The second point accounts for most of the postings in this blog. For example, the boys seemed to like their second birthday gift, a toy featured in a recent blog, though the thing they were really interested in was the shipping box it came in. Dougy is especially interested in such things.

They still play with the Cat’s Meow, the birthday toy, but they still prefer feather toys or…. Ready? The red plastic lid off a can of smoked almonds! That’s Andy’s new favorite toy, as you can see from the tooth marks in it.

There’s an object in the upper left hand corner that the boys fight play with, too. It’s a sheet of paper that fell out of the wastepaper basket directly behind it. In past magazines and other pieces of paper served the same function, which is as a well-defended territory. One or the other cat will lie down on the paper or magazine. If the other brother walks by, there is a stare down and a chase that follows. Andy is especially protective of this latest piece of paper, so I have to wait till he isn’t watching to toss it.

Recently, he decided an issue of Time magazine was his. In his defense, Andy chewed it up. I don’t mean he read it cover to cover.