On Sat, 11 Mar 2017 16:45:31 -0800, Joy wrote:

They do a good job of training us, don't they? When Koala wants me to
play with him, he usually waits until I'm walking from one room to
another. Then he gets in front of me and slows down or stops so I
nearly fall over him. Once he knows he has my attention, he will
usually lead me to the toy he wants to be used. Pickles is usually
above that sort of thing, although she will occasionally go for the
feather-on-a stick, if I'm playing with Koala, that is.

Yup, I remember from past times when there was more than one cat in the house
that sometimes the quickest way to get one cat's attention is to start playing
with another cat and let jealousy work in your favor. Nobody wants to feel left
out, I guess - not even a cat. :-)

Minnie does that bit with getting underfoot in the morning when I get up and
come downstairs - but she thinks ahead. While I'm asleep, she's busy down here
planting a toy someplace she knows I have to walk by to get to the kitchen. As
soon as I get up and head downstairs, she'll race ahead of me (she can spot me
half the staircase and still easily beat me to the bottom), hide near where the
toy has been planted, and when I get there she'll jump out from her hiding place
and force me to stop there.

It's cute and annoying at the same time. At least she leaves the toy in plain
sight so I can anticipate her pending assault on my feet, assuming I'm awake
enough to notice the catnip-scented mouse or the rawhide shoelace on the floor
just ahead. Unfortunately, that's not guaranteed. Some mornings my brain seems
as if it doesn't want to function at all. I'm glad she doesn't plant toys on the
staircase and go after my feet on the way down, or she might end up sending me
to the hospital (or the morgue).

However, on one such morning when my brain wasn't working, Minnie rescued me
from ending up with a terminally burned-out coffee pot, so I'm happy to have her
around even when just making my morning coffee is too complicated.

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY