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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Balls



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
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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.

24 comments:

  1. 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.

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  2. Oh 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.

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  3. Wow, that is a lot of ping pong balls!

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  4. Replies
    1. I did think of that, remembering your spike in hits over one provacative title.

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  5. You are almost having me change teams from a Dog person to a Cat person.

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  6. Do not show Toby this post..the game will be up!
    Jane x

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  7. I'm surprised the little basket hasn't been knocked off of the shelf yet!

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  8. Love cat stories. Big smile here. Then I think about how I miss our big Fuzz-cat. Sigh.

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  9. Oh 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.
    The 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.

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  10. 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!!!

    I 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

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  11. It was fun to follow the bouncing ball through your post.

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  12. You 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.

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  13. Love 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 :)

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  14. Toby is such a clever cat!
    I 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.

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  15. 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.

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  16. I 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.

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  17. Oh, I love it!

    Liza Bean's preference is for string, but she'll chase a ball as well!

    Pearl

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  18. Cats learn very quickly. I imagine they think we're not too smart....I saw you put that there?

    Let me know how long that basket stays.

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  19. I love cats. Toby is smart. Mine is on my lap and is inch by inch pushing the laptop away.

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  20. I 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!

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  21. Despite 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.

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