A playful day

Geoffrey Tobias now goes by Tobias.  He said he didn’t quite feel up to being called Geoffrey.  He is a most remarkable kitty, unique in so many ways.  Every cat I have ever had, when served his or her meal, has been like a starving sled dog, bolting his food, terrified that some other member of the team might beat him or her to a single bite.  There was yowling every morning as I staggered into the kitchen first thing, and twining and leg rubbing in the evening.  No chance of me forgetting to feed those felines.  The kitty buffet disappeared in seconds.  Tobias, on the other hand, is very casual about his food.  He can take it or leave it.  In fact, he always waits to be seated by the staff (me) before  taking his place. He has his own special dining area, which is well out of Margaret’s reach.  Margaret having no similar food issues, would be happy to quickly finish off anything that he hesitates to gobble up.  He has let me know that his food needs special preparation, part wet, part dry, topped off by a few tablespoons of warm water, and then mixed well.  He watches to see that I fix it properly, but when I set it at his place, he just stares at it until I lift him up and show it to him.  He eats about half, ambles off, comes back to and finishes off the rest within the next hour or so. 

With the usual cat, during meal preparation for humans, all food must be hidden away or covered if the cook is not in the room.  Once I was making frosting roses for Rachael’ s birthday cake and had about thirty of them prepared and laid out on a tray.  I left the room for a minute, and when I came back, Farnaby had taken a taste of every one.  Just like Ramona.  Once my then roommate was making herself a turkey sandwich for her work lunch, and left it unmonitored on the counter while she slipped out of the room briefly.  Farnaby took the turkey out of the sandwich, kept it,  dropped the bread down to Leslie, the cairn terrier eagerly  waiting on the floor below, then ate the turkey himself.  Tobias would never do that.  I leave my cooking unattended all the time, and he has never touched it. 

Maria helping with dinner preparation

All my other kitties have loved their toys.  Maria’s toys have to be hidden from her, or she will play them to death in short order, just as she would a real live mousie.  She quivers with excitement when she sees her pink feather bird-on-a-fishing-pole coming out of the cupboard.  She stalks it, leaps at it, worries it, and won’t let it be for a second.  Tobias, in contrast, can, with a lot of work on the part of his mistress or her guests, be finally roused to show some interest in his red feather snake, but the interest quickly fades.  His Uncle Farney loved his busy balls, but to Tobias, they are a big ho-hum.  I even got him one with a feather attached.  Not interested. 

Imagine my surprise when I was sitting reading at my kitchen table, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him scurrying and leaping about like a little kitten!  What could be happening! I had a huge spider, a left over Halloween decoration, sitting on my radio next to his little breakfast nook (see it in the picture above.)  He had removed it, and was frolicking about the kitchen floor, batting it, chasing it, and having a wonderful time.  He chased it into the next room and back into the kitchen.  The next morning, his spider was gone.  I searched in all the corners and under the furniture, but no spider.  A day later, when I was in the bathroom, I noticed him looking longingly under the vanity cabinet.  There is a small opening in the base of the cabinet, and all that is under there is a family of huge dust bunnies.  Could it be that his spider was visiting the bunnies?  I got a flashlight, struggled down onto my tummy, looked, and there, lurking in the back corner was the spider.  With some effort, I got it out, returned it to him in the kitchen.  What a happy kitty.  What a funny favorite toy.