Toys!

Well, Socks was one hyper little kitty last night. He really wanted to play.

After rough-housing a bit and sinking his sharp claws into my soft white flesh early in the evening, he went on to play with some of his other toys. The catnip mouse got a workout and was promptly lost (I found it behind the door this morning) and he even showed interest in the swirly ball, chasing it around for awhile. He must be playful if he's interested in the swirly ball - it's one of the most cute toys I bought and he looked at it as if it were something from Mars.

I also got him a "stretchy toy" as part of his basic play kit. It's made of a long stretchy band of soft cloth covered in what looks like leopard spots with feathers attached at one end and a loop on the other. For some reason, he just didn't seem
interested in it hanging on the door. Once in a while, he'd paw at it, stretching it out, then move on to something else.

I tried dangling it while sitting on the couch, but much the same thing happened - he'd just lie on his back, digging his claws into it and biting it, not really doing much. Then, I thought, maybe he'd chase after it. So, I started dragging it around the floor. Socks just looked at me like
I was nuts or something.

Then, something magical happened.

I dropped the stretchy toy on the floor to answer a phone call from a friend. Socks then found the true purpose of the stretchy toy - he stalked it like a snake, spending quite a while pouncing on it, tossing it around, then pouncing on it again.

Well, I suppose it does look like a snake swallowing a bird.

Sigh. I guess only Socks really knows how these toys are supposed to work.