Roatan

Roatan
Pirate ship?

Friday, August 17, 2012

Day One-Thirty-Six - The Attack of the Kleenex Box

Okay, you know when you go to take a Kleenex out of the box and the box is nearly empty so when you pull up, the whole box lifts up and then the remaining Kleenex catches on the opening and the box falls????  Well, the box of Kleenex in my living room is nearly empty and last night I tried to pull a Kleenex out of it.  When I did, the Kleenex box fell on the floor.

My cat, Shiner has always been easily spooked for some reason.  The slightest thing can happen or be out of place and he assumes the absolute worst.  When the Kleenex box fell last night, Shiner was lying on the floor very near where the Kleenex box fell.  Oh my GOD!  The cat jumped a mile in the air.  I bring this up because.... well, first of all it was pretty funny.  But also because I just can't figure out why he is always so jumpy.  Since the day I found him, he has been pampered.  He has never been put in a situation where something bad could happen to him.  He was barely two months old when I got him.  Surely whatever happened to him up to that point in his life doesn't still haunt him.

Yet, one of my pony tail holders can fall on the floor and he freaks out until I pick it up and show him that it is in fact a pony tail holder and not some small black cat eating creature.  This brings up another topic.  Why is he so comfortable going out in the garage and onto the patio and catching bugs and lizards if he is terrified of a pony tail holder in the bathroom floor in broad daylight?  When I am not home does someone break into my house and chase him around with pony tail holders and then put everything back in place before leaving so that I will never know why Shiner is such a scaredy cat?  At this very moment he is out in the dark garage hunting for bugs.  If I turn the garage light on when I let him out there, he isn't interested in going, I guess because it affects his hunt.  He is not the least bit scared to be in the garage with bugs.  But if I threw a pony tail holder out there, he would no doubt totally freak out!

Jingle on the other hand is only afraid of people.  He has no fear of anything else.  Perhaps this means that Jingle is slightly smarter than Shiner and understands that the person who breaks in here and chases them around with the pony tail holder, and not the pony tail holder itself, is the real villain.  Jingle is pretty smart anyway.  When I scream and point Shiner always runs behind me to hide, but Jingle always runs to the area that I am pointing at and immediately starts looking for a bug or other creature that he can catch.  Jingle sees my fear as an opportunity to catch something relatively easily.  Shiner thinks if I am jumping up and screaming, this must be bad.

Last night after the attack of the Kleenex box, I turned everything off downstairs and we all made our way upstairs to wind down before bedtime.  I sat in the chair in my bedroom knitting as the cats laid on the end of the bed.  Jingle was kind of restless last night.  I couldn't figure out what he wanted but he kept getting up to pace and then meowing loudly.  After about 15 minutes of this, Jingle laid back down on the bed.  As soon as Jingle was settled, Shiner got up walked over to Jingle tapped him pretty good with a paw, sort of like "tag, you're it!" and took off running.  Jingle immediately got up and chased him down the hall and the game was on.

The game of chase continued for about 30 minutes before both cats wore themselves down.  They have played chase like that on a regular basis since I got Shiner.  But I have never seen it start quite like that. I am so happy to have them both in my life and I am happy that they have each other.  I think without one another their lives with just me to play with would be very boring.  Besides, who can understand a cat better than another cat.  Certainly not I.  I hope you all have a great weekend.

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