Andy isn’t easily impressed. While Dougy always wants to play — especially with a new toy! — Andy’s reserved personality means you have to work at getting him to play.
Yesterday, I attached a new “lure” to the boys’ favorite Neko wand toy. It impressed Andy, and, as you can see in this photo, excited his interest. It didn’t take a moment to get him to play. Success!
Andy rests after a long day of play.
Notice he claimed a magazine that fell on the floor. It’s “his”!
Dougy snoops on the computer desk in the meantime…!
Andy reminds Dougy that they have a game of… well, whatever that strange game they play with the snake wand toy is.
He meows an insult in Cattinese. At least it sounded like an insult!
“Hark! Is that brother of mine dissing me?”
Dougy is alert to the game.
Dougy joined Andy on the chase shortly after, and they had a good time!
Cat toys don’t have a chance! I try to have replacements for favorite toys on hand for that inevitable moment the old toy reaches its end.
This toy is dead…!
Long live the exciting new toy!
Excitement builds in anticipation of play with the new toy!
(The boys are crawling all over the desk trying to get to the toy, which I try to photograph, then hide from them…!)
Both boys converge on the mother lode: the old toy and the new toy, just there, waiting to be taken!
Dougy makes a move, but Doug (the human one) pulls the toys away at the last second…!
“#*&@^#*!”
Wow! I didn’t know Dougy knew that word! We are not happy!
Dougy resting at my foot…
The wand toy moved to a new spot since I saw it last…
Andy resting on top of his favorite blue carrier perch!
No pussyfooting around, things are back to normal and the boys played their little cat game with the obscure rules that ends in a chase they both enjoy. Now, it’s time for a little mid-day cat nap!
I heard a clamor behind my computer this morning. What was the fuss? Andy wound himself up playing with a folded piece of paper!
Note in the video that a $16 interactive cat toy is in the upper left of the frame. “Make your own fun” is Andy’s motto. And it is free!
Dougy remains a bit baffled by the boys’ new ball toy. Andy, on the other hand…. Well, watch the video and see!
Hope you enjoyed the show!
Andy tried to get may attention, but I’d just begun reading today’s comics online. (“Dang! Can’t the cat wait a moment?” I wondered.)
I tried to ignore Andy a bit longer, but he knew I had something on my computer desk that he wanted.
Yes, I had the boys’ new favorite toy! And I wasn’t letting them play with it.
Dougy tried to hop up on my computer desk from the wrong side, knocking down my keyboard and scratching me in the process. I said some words and recovered my keyboard. Dougy ran into the kitchen to hide. He knew he was temporarily the bad boy! (No real harm done, however, and I noted the incident removed one cat from the play for a few minutes more.)
But it didn’t eliminate Andy! He hopped on top of my computer and gave me “The Look.”
“Yes, master,” I told him, and we played with the new favorite toy for several minutes. Dougy came back, too, and we had a play party.
A big pile of magazines and newspapers accumulated during the five weeks of family visits. I made a 50%-60% dent in the pile since the last of my family returned home, but I still have a lot of reading to go.
Here’s the pile. Yep! That’s Dougy in the background, being a bad boy by walking on the table!
I had to excuse Dougy, though. I’d put the cat toy on the table instead of up high where I usually do after the boys tire out. It seems one of the boys still had some play left in him!
Andy decided to rest in his favorite place by the front door….
I heard a thump behind me when I took Andy’s photo. This is what I found:
The toy the boys played with moments before and my partially read TIME magazine were on the floor. Dougy was on top of the magazine, ripping it up!
“Ohhhh! Grrrr! I’ll show you, Dougy! I’m making a video about how naughty you are! Bad boy! What a bad kitty!”
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I’ve mentioned another toy the boys fixate on. It ends up all over the house. One or the other cat will carry it, taunting the other with this favorite toy. Today, one of them dropped it on the floor between their water fountain and their feeding station. Most mornings, I find it on the floor by my bed, evidence I’ve had a visitor or two in the night and didn’t know it!
This toy is out all the time. I never know where I’ll find it each day or during the day. Andy and Dougy carry it around like a trophy, taunting each other with it!
It’s been fun having all of my siblings here for a visit at the same time, but the end of visits must begin. Today, the first of my sisters leaves. She flies to the West Coast this afternoon. My other sister, who has to leave herself in a few days, is treating us all to lunch, then we all load up the buggy (as we say in Western Nebraska…!) and take her to the airport.
The cat brothers will especially miss all the added playtime my siblings give them. Lots of pets in my family, so the boys are an appreciated part of the visit, I think. I know my sister can’t wait to see her cat Sox later today when she arrives home.
Sox didn’t want to share his toilet paper tube toy that day…! He growled, but later “apologised” to my sister for his faux pas.
Of course, I understand what it’s like to miss my cats when I’m gone for even a few hours, so it’s hard to imagine leaving a pet for a week or longer.
Sox recently had a grooming session, and we all were surprised he looked like this with his shorter hair! He’s a beautiful cat either way, but I think we all like him in full tuxedo cat splendor. His white chest is especially beautiful.
Of course, it’s only fair to show Sox in his full glory in this favorite photo of him my sister e-mailed me some time ago. Sox is one handsome kitty! His hair’s growing back, too, so don’t feel sorry for him! Cat hair grows very fast.
Cat-cousin Sox, a real fox!
Here I go again. What started out as a post about my sister leaving turned into another cat post! Speaking of which, she took several photos of my boys while here, and I can’t wait to get the e-mail she promised me with those photos attached. We tried to download them onto my computer from her camera, but ran into a technical snag. They are very good photos — I viewed them in her camera, of course — and they capture the personalities of Andy and Dougy quite well!
I arrived a few minutes late at the airport when I drove to the next town to pick him up. Or, a happier way to put it, I arrived on schedule, but his plane arrived ten minutes early!
The boys were pleased to see my brother, as was I, because the place is neatly picked up and vacuumed (don’t check for dust…!) even though I didn’t finish the job until literally the last minute before I had to leave to pick up my brother.
We’ve lived in filth and squalor lately because I figured I should wait till the last minute to clean up before my family arrived rather than clean up when the place needed it, then have to do it again at the last minute. I don’t know, but I think next time I’ll clean twice instead of live in filth and squalor again!
Even I have a limit, I discovered. I had to empty my vacuum canister four times, there was so much crud on the floor. This is not that big a place! And I forgot yesterday was trash day. I barely got the trash out the door, but the sack with the week’s accumulation of “cat litter” — well, clumped urine and poop — didn’t get out in time. Not what you want to live with a second week. Andy and Dougy are cute, but there are some downsides to them, too.
As cats will do, they made sure the scent-marked him by wrapping their tails around him as they nonchalantly walked past him. At least Dougy did. Andy was more discrete about it.
My brother and I sat down, being old guys with bad knees and sore feet. I’d brought out a new toy the cat brothers both really, really, really like. Andy oftentimes is a bit fussy about toys, so anything he really, really, really likes counts as a major home run! Have you seen the price of cat toys?
I hate buying something both Andy and Dougy won’t play with. Andy, anyway. Dougy is a play slut: He’ll play any time, any toy! Especially if its his favorite human uncle, my big brother! Both boys enjoyed their play session with my brother and the new toy.
After all that last-minute cleaning, I hadn’t managed to bring in anything easy to make, so I was happy I had some frozen sloppy joes in the freezer. My brother and I had that for supper, and topped it off later with some mixed nuts.
Time to finish this update and get on with the icky chores for today!
We managed to stay up till a bit after 9 PM, though we both managed to nod off from time to time doing it. Yeah, we had to watch all the Andy and Dougy videos I made since the last time he was here, then we watched something on television.
The cats got me up at the usual time this morning, after two, before three. I caught up on my e-mails, videos, blogs, and Facebook since my brother wisely stayed in bed. Of course the cats know I’m the one who feeds them, so my brother gets to sleep in! 🙂
Today, I have to apply flea-tick-whatever stuff on the boys, clean their water fountain and put in a new filter, and — still — give Andy his medicine. He’s been begging me for attention, but I’ve ignored him on the thought he might be ready to be caught when I complete this update. Or not. Andy is no idiot, unfortunately, and he can run faster than I can!