A Special Occasion

Some months back, I bought Lib's cat, Neb, a mouse that looked rather European and was attached to an elastic string. She was very exited about her new toy the first time we played with it, but I have noticed how cats often tire of a new toy rather quickly, so I came up with a plan: I would put the mouse away and only very rarely play with it to preserve the new-toy mystique. It worked. Some months ago, when we were dogsitting a friend's dog, Neb hid at the bottom of the steps, so I had to attach a dowel rod to the elastic string to reach her. I have since named it Special Occasion Mouse (it even has its own song to the tune of "Secret Agent Man").

So what better occasion to bust it out than last night when Neb chased a bee into the light fixture above the back stairs. Real-live quarry is always exhilarating for an indoor cat, so when I pulled out special occasion mouse to coax the bee out, I was surprised her head did not explode from over-stimulation. Between meowing at the light and batting Spec Oc Mouse when I lowered it, Neb was having the time of her life. The bee seemed trapped and reaching it with the stick was not going to work; plan B was to lower Special Occasion Mouse into the globe so that the bee would sting it and die, and the bee did attack it on several occasions, and eventually went quiet. My plan had worked.

Neb and I goof around quite a bit, but when things get serious, all that teamwork and training really pays off. I know Lib thinks we are silly, but like many other species, playing hones our reflexes and communication skills for when we really need to come together.

Update: Looks like our efforts last night failed. As I was sitting down this morning to write this blog, Neb rousted our prey from some corner and chased it across the room, but we did come together to trap it in a window, where I smashed it with Lib's slipper. Go Team!