In the dollar store one day Jan picked up a pack of eight
ping pong balls, thinking the cats might like to chase them. At first sight they were Toby’s balls. Ryon’s exquisite paranoia will not permit
him to touch one, but occasionally he watches Toby’s antics with trepidation,
poised to escape if the little white sphere approaches.
Of course the little balls escaped to unreachable places,
under the chest, under dressers. Worst
of all under the fridge where no grabber reaches. The old folks in the house seldom went
looking under dressers, and the ball numbers decreased. Toby’s reprieve was the arrival of short
children this summer. They love him, he
loves them and they often ferreted his balls out from dark places.
Jan was able to keep four reserve balls in the bag on the
top bookcase shelf. One day Toby begged
and she reached up for the bag. Only
three! She gave him one, but nobody
would confess to giving in and releasing the missing ball to the ball
monster. Then Jan went around the corner
and caught him, back paws on the chair, front paws stretched waaay over to the
book shelf, and the last ping pong ball in his mouth.
Whenever we found an errant ping pong ball we put it in the
little elfin ware vase on the mantle. It
held three nicely, and now Toby sat on the hearth and stared determinedly up,
waiting for someone taller to see his need and release a wonderful ball. Of course one day there were no balls in the
vase that held three the night before. But, we had a mantle walking cat!
Toby was on his own.
If Emily or Laura would go searching with him he had ping pong
balls. If not, oh well. Laura would always get down
and look. Sadly for Toby, she is in
school all day
.
I eventually had to wonder what would happen if Toby had
more ping pong balls than he could deal with at one time. Would he retreat,
backing away from the onslaught of the mass of balls until cornered, he went
under.
A bag of a gross of balls brought out the best of Toby. He reached under the bag, in case balls came
out from there. He patted the top of the bag,
looking for the opening. He held the bag
firmly down with his left paw and used the right paw switch blade to slice down
to the treasure. He only took one ball.
He thinks he knows where he can find the rest.
Clue: they are no
longer on the mantle.
He'll find them. Cats can sniff out ping pong balls. We haven't had a cat now for at least five years and the other day I found one of Rockies foam balls behind the dryer. I sat and had a little cry over that.
ReplyDeleteThat's such a wrench.
DeleteOh he knows where they are. He very pointedly got on the back of my chair the other day and stared up there. I took a picture of it. He's an industrious little stinker and he misses NOTHING.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a lot of ping pong balls!
ReplyDeleteSounds like one of my blog titles.
ReplyDeleteI did think of that, remembering your spike in hits over one provacative title.
DeleteYou are almost having me change teams from a Dog person to a Cat person.
ReplyDeleteDo not show Toby this post..the game will be up!
ReplyDeleteJane x
I'm surprised the little basket hasn't been knocked off of the shelf yet!
ReplyDeleteLove cat stories. Big smile here. Then I think about how I miss our big Fuzz-cat. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. Ping pong balls are GOOD. Seriously so. Though I am always fascinated by the toys that cats love. Our current cats have a passion for acorn shells - and will pick one up and carry it to a better (for their purposes) surface. I also found one stashed on the top shelf of the wardrobe. My swim bag is another hiding place.
ReplyDeleteThe late lamented Medlyn had a pet rock - which he batted from place to place and love. It now live in my jewellery box, and causes misty moments each time I come across it.
Brilliant post - thank you.
Oh how cute!!! Who would think a simple think like a ping pong ball would bring so much enjoyment to a cat!! That he would even go in search for them!! I can imagine though how hard they are to keep track of! Wise to purchase the bigger size bag!!!
ReplyDeleteI never had a cat, always dogs, but I keep "threatening" our corgi that when he is no longer with us that we're getting a cat (I'm hoping that will put the fear into him not to let anything happen to him; he's already a cancer survivor and has diabetes :)
(I'm impressed no colds for 10 years; hope that record continues!)
betty
It was fun to follow the bouncing ball through your post.
ReplyDeleteYou have a VERY smart cat! I've forwarded this post to several of the non-blog-reader cat lovers in my life. I know they'll get a kick out of it.
ReplyDeleteLove this! We provided quite a number of these for our cats also, and I can't tell you where any of them are at the moment :)
ReplyDeleteToby is such a clever cat!
ReplyDeleteI must remember to buy ping pong balls when I buy a kitty. And then find the crevice tool for the vacuum cleaner, so I can suck them out from under the fridge.
I was just going to get my cats some small tennis balls but I might get them some ping pong balls now. My cats learned to play with tennis balls because we got them for our dog and they all played together, the dog long since gone but I think they remember him when I toss the tennis ball around.
ReplyDeleteI love the elfin vase! My Emma cat prefers to knock all the stuff off my work table than to play with the toys bought for her. I'll have to try the ping pong balls though.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love it!
ReplyDeleteLiza Bean's preference is for string, but she'll chase a ball as well!
Pearl
cat's are easy to buy for huh :)
ReplyDeleteCats learn very quickly. I imagine they think we're not too smart....I saw you put that there?
ReplyDeleteLet me know how long that basket stays.
I love cats. Toby is smart. Mine is on my lap and is inch by inch pushing the laptop away.
ReplyDeleteI don't need a cat and ping-pong balls. I have a Husby with a catapult and little rubber eyeballs. The eyeballs end up in the same places, however!
ReplyDeleteDespite the gift from joanne, ping pong balls on carpet are no fun..It is the hard wood floors that do it..However my kitties can spend endless hours in the zaccuzzi with a ping pong ball. Not sure which one finally picks it up and removes.at least that is what I hope.Otherwise, the next time I turn on the jets, I might be in for a big surprise!!! Plumber will love me.
ReplyDelete