Who knew that cats could be so entertaining?

I didn’t!

I discovered a new game to play with my cat. It’s very simple, yet seems to hold his attention more than any other game we’ve played. Though he has his squeaky mouse on a string, fuzzy rope, ball in a plastic hoop thingy, stuffed squirrel hanging from the door, glow in the dark rattle balls, and many more entertaining toys, this one does the trick.

I was sitting on my futon writing when I got stuck mid-story so absentmindedly stuck my pen through the tiny hole in my flannel blanket and started fiddling with it, running it under the blanket. Suddenly, my cat was pounced from nowhere and landed on top of the pen, clawing and biting at the bump it made in the blanket. He raced back and forth, chasing the bump as I ran the pen under the blanket. When I went back to writing, he got very upset. He did not seem to connect the pen to the bump in the blanket. He kept searching for it, sniffing here and there, looking up at me and squeaking as though to say, “well…where did it go??”

Eventually he gave up looking and settled down next to me on the futon. As he drifted off to sleep, I waited until there was only the smallest of cracks between eyelids, and shoved the pen under the blanket again.

He was awake.

He watched. He waited. He slowly raised himself on his haunches, wiggled his butt a few times, and pounced.

Cats are awesome.