The People Behind My Eyes

10:34 PM

After a chuckle with Barney I came back to my apartment to scarf down lasagna. During the fork to mouth action I heard something hit the door. BAM, BAM, BAM.  I'd heard it two or three times that day but didn’t know what on earth it was. This time I decided to investigate. To my surprise Gracie escaped to Barney’s area and wanted to be let back to the safe cleanliness that I call home. Evidently she was throwing herself at the mercy of the door with a “let me in meow.” When I opened the door she came darting in and looked at me like, “why did you lock me out there all day.” I know it couldn’t have been all day because I just saw her right before getting seconds on said lasagna.

She’s been hiding under this and that, literally bouncing off Captain’s head then running along top the sofa, back off Captain’s spring board-like head and into the bedroom only to turn around and do it again. I have to wonder why I get all the mentally ill animals.

I figured that while I'm busy complaining about my life, cooking, cleaning, doing yard work and walking Captain I need to somehow keep her occupied. My friend Sg said she had a toy that her cat use to love so she brought it over and we watched Gracie lose her mind trying to catch it. The programmed toy drives a patch of feathers in a circle, brings them back then turns half way to do it again but nope, it goes the other direction and then in a full circle. Gracie catches it and feels so proud of herself. Instead of sitting it on the floor I sit it up on a round can with a flat top. It lets the feathers spin more and Gracie cant seem to get enough. It even has a timer setting on it so that the batteries don’t run down. I can push timer and let her tire herself out. Sg says to not get my hopes up that Gracie will stay interested in this toy because after all, she is the 4^th cat to inherit this toy. It seems that Alley, Kitt and then Tortie had this toy first. They all lost interest in it and the mom’s passed the toy on to other cats.

I have an idea for this hobo, this drifter of a toy. Instead of leaving it out for her to play with all the time I’ll sit it out only when she’s lost her mind using Cappy for a jungle gym or my sofa as a back flip board. This way it will have newness to it, it won’t be some old toy that she plays with all day long. It’ll be a special occasion toy. A toy for times when her mind is gone with my patients following closing behind it.

The other idea I had is to write the names of all the crazy kitties that played with this toy on the bottom with a sharpie marker. When Gracie gets tired of it (if it still works by then) and it needs to drift to another home it’ll have all the names of the kitties that played with it on the bottom. But, whomever I give it to has to agree that if their cat loses interest (and the toy still works) that they have to write their cats name on the bottom and give it to another cat to play with. So far Gracie is the fourth kitty to play with this toy. It is my hope that this is an alternative, an outlet even, for her excesses in energy.

Joan of Arc