(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Caturday Pootie Diary: And now we play [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2023-01-21
He leapt onto the back of the couch, digging his claws into the fabric. I bent down and hugged his whole body against me, rubbing his fur with both hands. “I got you!” I announced.
“I’m caught!” he laughed, clawing excited biscuits into the back of the couch.
“Now you get me!” I said, releasing him and turning to run deeper into the house. I heard the thump as he hit the ground, starting the chase.
My weak knee gave out on me and I froze, grabbing the wall for support. Freddie came up behind me and lifted himself onto his back legs, reaching for me, but not touching me. “I got you!” he cried.
“You did!” I said, panting a little. “I need to sit down, I think. I’m not a kitten anymore.”
He rubbed his body against my legs. “It’s a good time for treats,” he agreed.
He followed me as I limped to the living room and we collapsed on the couch together. I pointed to one of his puff balls on the ground. “You should chase the ball,” I suggested. “You don’t have to stop playing just because I need a break.”
He looked at and gave an uninterested yawn. “It’s not moving,” he pointed out.
“You can make it move,” I explained, moving my hand in a batting gesture.
He frowned. “It’s not moving,” he said again.
“Didn’t you say something about treats?” he asked, hopefully.
I eyed him with mock suspicion. “I think that was you,” I said, but reached for the treats anyway.
I petted him as he cronch cronched his way through the small pile I laid before him. He finished and shook me off, then set about carefully cleaning his face.
“Alright,” I said, slapping my hands on my knees. “I think the chasing game is done, but would you like me to throw your puff balls?”
He stood and jumped off the couch, running toward his nearest pile of them.
I followed him and scooped them up. I had a whole bag of 50 that I had bought from Amazon. They were small, soft balls similar to the kind used in craft projects, only a little bigger. I had dumped some dried catnip into the bag just to make the toys a little more fun for him. I retrieved the bag and dropped the balls I had picked up off the floor inside, then closed the bag and shook it.
I looked into the bag and saw all the balls had at least a few dried catnip leaves clinging to them. I plucked one from the bag and rolled it between my fingers, watching Freddie as he danced in excitement.
I held it up and showed it to him. “Do you want this?” I asked, shaking it a little.
“I do!”
“Does Freddie want this ball?” I asked again.
“He does!”
I tossed it so it passed him and rolled into the hallway. He did an excited little hop and chased after it.
I grabbed a few more balls out of the bag, before setting it down and following him.
I found him sitting next to the ball. “It stopped moving,” he said, providing more evidence to my theory that he doesn’t know he can move things.
I held up another ball. “Do you want this?” I demanded.
He stood and arched his back, shaking his tail.
I threw this one up high so it arced over his head. He gave an graceful leap and plucked it out of the air, shoving it to his mouth before he hit the ground.
I clapped a little, impressed with his athletic prowess.
“It stopped moving,” he said looking down at it.
I sighed, and showed him another ball. This was why I bought fifty of the things.
Happy Caturday, Peeps! I hope you and your pooties spend some time chasing each other and catnip puff balls this weekend.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/21/2148415/-Caturday-Pootie-Diary-And-now-we-play
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
