Here's something you might be interested in.
Like all animal lovers, I love James Herriot's books. The stories are so charming and funny and warm, and Herriot has an almost Austenian ability to capture personalities, human and animal, on the page! When I'm not feeling well, I often will pull the books from my shelf and read them, amazed at, and grateful for, the way they completely absorb me and take me out of my misery for a while.
My own cats are highly entertaining. I actually think I keep them around for purposes of amusing me. ;) Some of the things they do crack me up. I swear if I could catch them in the act on video, I'd win the hundred grand on America's Funniest Home Videos.
At my last house, I had a plastic grocery bag full of clothes my son had outgrown, tied up and sitting on the corner of a desk against the wall by the door of my bedroom; the bag had been there for some time waiting for me to either take it to the Salvation Army or put it in with the other things I was going to yard sale. Cats are clever things, you know. One of my little cats figured out that if she wanted to get out of the bedroom quick, all she had to do was jump on that bag. The bag would come slithering down to the floor with her riding the bag, landing with a loud plop. Whenever she did this, I would get up, and open the bedroom door so she could go out, after which I'd pick up the bag and put it back on the desk. It was an effective tactic she employed, but very annoying, particularly in the middle of the night.
Well. One day, I must have set the bag on the desk differently, because she jumped up on the bag, only instead of slithering down, the bag tipped straight over and dumped her into a round wastebasket I kept by the desk, the bag falling into the wastebasket like a plug, the wastebasket tipping over and rolling across the floor.
I jumped up and laughing fit to bust a gut, I took out the bag, the cat leaped out, and walked a few paces, then sat down and looked at me: I meant to do that. Yeah, well, she never jumped on the bag again. :)
The East German judge gave it a 10, by the way.
Like all animal lovers, I love James Herriot's books. The stories are so charming and funny and warm, and Herriot has an almost Austenian ability to capture personalities, human and animal, on the page! When I'm not feeling well, I often will pull the books from my shelf and read them, amazed at, and grateful for, the way they completely absorb me and take me out of my misery for a while.
My own cats are highly entertaining. I actually think I keep them around for purposes of amusing me. ;) Some of the things they do crack me up. I swear if I could catch them in the act on video, I'd win the hundred grand on America's Funniest Home Videos.
At my last house, I had a plastic grocery bag full of clothes my son had outgrown, tied up and sitting on the corner of a desk against the wall by the door of my bedroom; the bag had been there for some time waiting for me to either take it to the Salvation Army or put it in with the other things I was going to yard sale. Cats are clever things, you know. One of my little cats figured out that if she wanted to get out of the bedroom quick, all she had to do was jump on that bag. The bag would come slithering down to the floor with her riding the bag, landing with a loud plop. Whenever she did this, I would get up, and open the bedroom door so she could go out, after which I'd pick up the bag and put it back on the desk. It was an effective tactic she employed, but very annoying, particularly in the middle of the night.
Well. One day, I must have set the bag on the desk differently, because she jumped up on the bag, only instead of slithering down, the bag tipped straight over and dumped her into a round wastebasket I kept by the desk, the bag falling into the wastebasket like a plug, the wastebasket tipping over and rolling across the floor.
I jumped up and laughing fit to bust a gut, I took out the bag, the cat leaped out, and walked a few paces, then sat down and looked at me: I meant to do that. Yeah, well, she never jumped on the bag again. :)
The East German judge gave it a 10, by the way.