OK, anyone who *isn't* owned by a cat would look around my great-room and
think me quite eccentric. There are at least 9 empty boxes lying around on
the floor - the box from the new coffee maker we just bought, several shoe
boxes, the box from the CD I just received from eBay, etc., etc., etc.
Whenever we bring something home that comes in a box, the box gets put on
the great-room floor until it falls to pieces. Most of the boxes are placed
on their sides so that the openings face forward with the box flap serving
as either an "awning" or a "porch" (depending on which side is down) to the
cats' cardboard playhouse. The boxes range in size from Jessie petite to
Sammy humongous. Sammy will eye Jessie jealously when Jessie sits her
teeninsy iddle bum in a teeninsy iddle box, and tries to fit her
far-from-teeninsy-iddle self into it after Jessie vacates the box. This is
the cause of most of the boxes falling to pieces! ;

Last night Jessie decided to take up residence in the largest box in the
room. Sammy took offense at this, thinking that the Sammy humongous boxes
should be reserved for Sammy the humongous, so she jumped on top of the box
to lean over and glare into the opening at Jessie. This caused said box to
bow alarmingly under the weight of Samazon, and you could see Jessie
thinking, "OHMYGAWD, I'm going to be crushed to death in a cave-in, erm,
box-in!". Jessie hurriedly squeezed out of the diminished opening and set
about teaching Sammy a lesson. The two rolled across the living room floor
sending boxes, cat toys, and fur flying in all directions.

Now you would think that being roughly 2.5 times bigger than Jessie, that
Sammy would walk away from such a tussle victorious. However, Sammy has
never realized that she has grown bigger than the 1 pound kitten she was
when we first got her and Jessie loomed over her like a giant. Sammy
"gives" almost immediately in any contest that does not involve food.
However, beating the sh*t out of Sammy proved to be thirsty work, so after
the main event ringside Jessie took a side trip into the kitchen to get a
drink of water. Imagine her surprise when, returning to the spoils of her
victory, she saw Sammy crouched inside the box looking out at Jessie a touch
defiantly. Hmmph!

First, Jessie tried jumping on top of the box the same way Sammy had.....
not even the minute-est dent was to be seen in the box. Then Jessie tried
jumping off and then back onto the box several times..... again, not the
slightest curve could be seen in the box under her wee tiny arse. Sammy
watched Jessie's attempts to cave the box in on top of her and snickered and
smirked. Well, this was just too much insult for Jessie to bear, so she
jumped down, reached inside, and started smacking Sammy about the face and
jowls until Sammy beat a hasty retreat to Mommy's lap! Then Jessie gave
Sammy the ultimate cat insult - she walked away from the box without even
going inside the now empty playhouse!

Hugs,

CatNipped