I have recently discovered that my cat Bob (the wonder
cat) is a Circus performer. I knew from early on in his adoption that he was an
unusual cat. First off there was his colour. Not ginger but described on his
adoption papers as Champagne. Then his eyes are the most incredible bright orange
colour. And the talking, he never stops. But his kitten tendencies I took for a
big woosie cat that never grew up. I didn’t realise it was limbering up for his
next Circus performance.
In spite of his ‘pudginess’,
according to his unkind Vet , Bob is able to leap up on almost anything, not
matter how high or how precarious, like the top of a flat screen TV or his
quite unstable scratching tower. Not so usual I hear you say and, to be honest,
I had the same opinion until two feats of acrobatics/gymnastics that, in all my
contact with crazy pets and in particular cats, I had ever seen.
The first I thought was
simple cardboard box obsession that is a common condition of your common and
garden variety of house cat. One of my cats, Zappy, the mad black cat was dangerous
when it came to boxes. He would lurch and hide underneath any stray box ready
to strike when a tender bit of bare ankle came near. I had an aversion to boxes
for a while until Zappy went to live across the road with my neighbours, which
is a whole other story of betrayal and lost love that needs its own blog.
Anyhoo back to Bob. Bob
loves to sit in boxes, which is sometimes a bit of a squeeze. But what he does
that is unusual is that he loves to take a flying leap into the box so that it
slides across the polished wooden floor for a metre or so. He also loves balls of any kind; ping pong
balls, cat toys with bells inside, balls of aluminium foil and, as it happens,
apple-shaped stress balls. Bob, in fact,
is not just a Circus Performer but also an accomplished soccer player. Any balls hit his way will be swiftly and
expertly returned.
His next Circus feat was in
relation to pursuing a favourite round device; the apple-shaped stress ball. He
was chasing it around the room, into the kitchen, underneath the rug, skittering
along the wooden floor until it became wedged under sofa. He stalked off in
disgust into the kitchen until I took pity on him and dislodged the ball and
rolled it along the floor in his direction. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending
on your point of view, the swing lid of the bin was sitting on the floor between
Bob and his object of desire. This did not stop Bob as he hurtled towards the
ball and straight through the lid. Which I shouldn’t mention did get a little
stuck around his rather extensive middle. TA DAH! …Another Circus feat to add
to his repertoire.
I can’t wait to see what he
comes up with next.
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