I am thankful for playful cats.
I have two elderly cats--littermates who are over 17 years old. They are definitely showing their age and spend most of their days sleeping with occasional howling for us to sit down so they can sleep in our laps. We occasionally get them new toys which they promptly ignore. However, they surprised us this week and showed a bit of themselves from their younger days.
 |
| Annie was enjoying her morning snooze in a sunbeam as usual. |
 |
| However, the next minute she was on a stand playing with the peppermints which she dumped out. Cats do not like peppermint, so that was a surprise. But a fun one to see her take an interest in more than sleeping. |
 |
| Later that day, she helped Theo with his laundry. Annie has always loved laundry, especially dirty laundry, but she hasn't "helped" us with it for a long time--until today. |
 |
| The next day, Annie was taking her morning snooze in the another sunbeam. |
 |
| But a little later she was trying to look innocent as she hovered around another basket with peppermints. |
 |
| And soon she had them all on the floor. |
 |
| Right where she wanted them for a little fun. |
 |
Later, she found a new place to hang out under the Christmas tree. Over the years, we have had various cats who have enjoyed sleeping under the Christmas tree, but not Annie -- until this year.
|
Not to be outdone, her brother Leo has been a bit mischievous recently, also (but I don't have any pictures). One morning, he left his sunbeam and was batting around garland. Soon thereafter, we were surprised to see him on the counter eating turnip leaves. He can barely do stairs, so we're not sure how he made it up onto the counter.
These small examples of kitty play have been very fun for us to watch. We consider it part of the magic of Christmas and for that we are thankful.
