Me: "Witness the wonder of the North American hermit cat. When they outgrow their shells, they have to scuttle off across the kitchen tiles in search of a new home..."What he was really waiting for, of course, was for anybody to reach for the sack, whereupon a paw would dart out of the opening and bat furiously at the intruder. "Defend the Fort" is Huck's favorite game.
Sunday, September 09, 2012
Overheard in the Kitchen...
Bobbi has brought home groceries from her bicycle ride. As the last item is removed from the paper sack, it falls over and is horizontal for less than two seconds before it has been occupied by a giant red tabby...
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25 comments:
When he is in the bag, he is 12 stories tall and made of radiation.
Catmatyx loved grocery sacks. Toss one on the floor and he'd hit it like there was fresh mouse stuck to the bottom
I swear Huck and Simon are clones.
Paper? Sack?
Haven't seen one of those in decades.
My cat is more fond of the "get on my chair before I can" game.
Hah, even my dogs won't pester the cat when she's in a box or a bag lol
In the wild, the ecological role of cats was to lurk inside their natural habitat of paper bags waiting to catch their natural prey of passing pieces of string.
At least, that's what I deduce from their behavior.
kx59: I commute from 1937, where it's paper bags or a cardboard box, unless you brung a string bag from home. I have to hide my bike, though; I really should get a vintage safety bike I can park right at the market.
i can see my cat revert to a lion of the Serengeti whenever he sees a paper bag.
Next time this happens:
1. Approach bag from rear, close and roll down opening.
2. Tell the rest of the class how this works out.
I've donate a bit of blood to this game. And the other one too, the "what's on the other side of the door", if the gap at the bottom is big enough.
My main source of income was, for several years, morning paper routes with mostly high rise apartment buildings. So imagine this: hapless paper carrier tries to push the morning paper (delivered during the late night, the working hours are between 01.00 - 06.00) through the mail slot, happy cat attacks the fingers still attached to the other end of the paper and gets a good grip with one claw. Paper carrier tries to get finger back without losing too much blood.
Happened more than once. Of course I learned to remember where the cats lurked after a while, but I also changed routes about every third or fourth year for a while. And if the mail slot is a tight fit and the paper thick you kind of have to push your fingers through a little, especially since we were not supposed to leave the paper halfway through, it should be pushed all the way in, so sometimes I'd end playing 'who's faster' with the cat. You know, sneak quietly to the slot, then do it very fast so that if the cat wasn't already waiting on the other side it would not get there before your fingers were safely back out. :)
I've played the variation with the cat where the open mouth of the bag is pointed at the cat that is sleeping across the room. I then tickle the bottom of the bag until the cat hears the rustling noise, and eventually leaps into the bag, all claws out to pounce on the bottom of the bag. And yes, there is a risk of blood for that game, too. Unlike dogs, cats don't seem to enjoy games unless there's a good chance for blood.
Oh, "there's an invisible mouse in the bag!" That's a good game. Huck likes it. Tommy the cat loved that game all his life -- even when he was very old and tired, he'd perk up a little and have a look.
Huck has his own version of "there's something behind the door." He puts a toy behind a door that is standing open against a wall, then lays down and reaches under to play with it from the other side.
Get two cats on opposite sides of the door. THEN the real fun begins.
What is interesting about the cat-in-a-bag is that scratching the outside of the bag sooner or later draws a strike which is quite accurate. Stereo hearing works great at short range.
Another funny trick is to get a REALLY small paper bag (like one used to put a bottle of vodka in) and put it on the floor. Watch the hilarity as oversized tabby tries like hell to push themselves into the bag.
My lady has the gun nut cat, which I trained, anytime she hears the rake of a slide or a magazine removal she's there from anywhere in the house dead asleep or not asking where is the laser. Then she's chasing the laser for a few minutes, until she's bored, then slinks back to wherever she came from only to return, wide awake, on the next rake of the slide......Man I love that cat....;)
Let the cat be for a minute or two, and then (lightly but smartly -- the objective is noise, nothing more) smack the bag and watch the whole thing jump three feet in the air.
We had a male grey tabby with the same fixation. In the case of a box it didn't even have to conceal him.
If it was a lid turned upside down and he could squeeze his four paws into it he'd do that then lower his bulk down and doze as though he was fully concealed.
I am mildly ashamed that I have taken part in all these games, and have the (fresh) scars on my hands to prove it.
I used to think my cat somehow teleported into the bags. I'd put the empty bag down on the floor and when I reached to pick it up again there was a cat in it. I never heard the bag crinkle and I could swear he was locked in my room but somehow he always wound up in the bag.
I've kept as pets over the years: kids, cats, puppies, rats, guinea pigs, squirrels, skunks, and one stinking 'possum. All were enamored of small places. The kids liked the bottom cabinets in the kitchen. I read later that most small mammals have a predilection toward small enclosed places. Genetic memory of large mammals and some VERY large lizards perhaps?
Gerry N.
My dear departed kitteh also loved the brown grocery bags. Oh God I miss him! It's been over four months now, and I still miss him.
Protip: Cut a small hole in the bottom of the grocery bag and stick a finger in and out of there quickly. You might get some claw wounds, but I guarantee that both you and teh kitteh will have a good time.
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