"Joy" wrote in message
. ..
"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
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On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:06:43 +0000, bastXXXette wrote:

Marina wrote:

The other night, Miranda came inside after I had gone to bed. She was
soaking wet and shaking her back legs in that extremely annoyed
manner that comes after the 'I meant to do that' lick isn't quite
enough. It would seem that she is the one who went for an unintended
swim first. Or at least fell into some shallow water.

Of course, then she got into bed with me to dry off...

Well, cats always have to one-up each other, or at least copy each
other. Why should Caliban get all the attention, after all?

On one zoo visit a couple of years ago, I found that the cougars had been
given a beach ball. The cougar enclosure at the Nashville Zoo is on a
slope, with a man-made stream leading down to a shallow pool at the
bottom of the enclosure. One of the cougars was playing with the beach
ball, and it kept getting away and rolling downhill into the water. The
cougar would wade in after it, with the same "Ick! Water!" leg-shakes
described above, and then, a couple minutes later, the ball would be back
in the water again. The cougar finally lay down on top of the ball as a
way of making it stay put. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any sign of a
cat-toy in the cougar enclosure since then.

--
John F. Eldredge --

The actress Tippi Hedrin ("The Birds") has a sanctuary for large cats
about an hour or so away from me. It is called Shambala. It is open to
the public (for a fee) one Sunday a month. I visited it a couple of
times. One of the workers there showed us a large enclosure that contains
both lions and tigers (ones that can get along with each other, of course.
They have bowling balls to bat around. The lions love to bat the balls,
but hate water. The tigers love water. When the lions start playing with
a ball, the tigers will try to get it, then bat it into a small pond in
the enclosure. It has been done enough times they can tell it is
deliberate.

Joy


I was about to say that the Bronx Zoo tigers have a multimillion-$$$
habitat, and it is strewn with what look like giant cat toys-- balls, tires,
what-have-you. It looks something like your basic cat slaves' house, except
on a much bigger scale. The male tiger, Sasha (multiple winner of New York
Magazine's Best Zoo Animal designation, for his endearing personality)
frequently walks around with a giant rubber ball in his mouth.

--
Theresa, Stinky and Dante
drtmuirATearthlink.net

Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh