Friends and Enemies

As most cat-owners know, the best toys are usually not the ones you buy - at least as toys. Zofia has two items in particular that she enjoys; neither of them were intended as feline playthings.

The lint-roller appears to have become her great foe. Little Miss Zed will often throw herself onto the bed in the morning - as I am making it - and one of the few ways to distract her from the billowing sheets and bedspread is a lint-roller. I will shake it at her and she will crouch behind a ridge of blanket, her eyes wide. Then, when the lint-roller is within range, she and it will exchange a rapid series of whaps. Sometimes, the roller will prod her gently. Then, there is more violence. It’s hard to take it all seriously, however, as she purrs through much of the battle.

Then there is the ring off a plastic milk-jug. This little object is a joy to Zofia. She will bat it about the floor and chase it as it slides. If it rolls onto the rugs, she will pick it up and carry it back to a more suitable surface. Then again, she will sometimes transport it to a comfortable spot, as if to gloat over her victories, in whatever contest she and the milk-jug ring engage. But, unlike the lint-roller, the milk-jug ring is her chum, a fellow gamester. Unfortunately, the milk-jug ring cannot stay for long: Zo tends to chew it into pieces, of which a few she may have swallowed. Therefore, I must retire each milk-jug ring before it disintegrates.

Zofia plays with other toys. She wrestles with the string-toy, and chases the red dot until she exhausts herself. She jumps in and out of the nylon cube, and the dirty white pompoms long ago torn off the ends of the nylon tunnel are a delight, too. But her favourites seem to be the lint-roller and the milk-jug ring. There is, after all, nothing like spending time with one’s friends and enemies.