The Paper Pile

Merry does love it when I get a shipment from my weaving thread supplier because it means I can replenish his Paper Pile with crisp, new material which crickles good when he pounces on/in it. He loves the Paper Pile! It's probably the best cat toy ever. He hides Fish in it (that's Fish in the foreground), and then digs Fish back out again. He drags the Paper Pile over to his ball race, covers it up, then spins the balls around and watches for them when they appear between the folds. It's a very noisy game. And best yet? He hides in the Paper Pile, covering himself up entirely, to lie in wait for an unsuspecting Mama to walk by. More than once, I've been startled out of my skin when the Paper Pile suddenly erupted a Cat. Even when the paper has gotten rather limp from constant use, it's still fun. Of course, it's a bit of a trip hazard for the Mama because it occupies a large area of the living room floor, and I find myself having to make long detours to move my band looms over to my chair, but in the order of things, Merry's enjoyment takes precedence.

Spring Mystery

Day 258: Sooner or later, the black hole into which all the springs are disappearing is going to reach critical mass. There must be at least a dozen that I can't find even though I've gone around with a flashlight to peer under furniture and a stick to reach into crevices. A few have surfaced unexpectedly, leading me to believe Merry knows exactly where they've gone. We started with what was left from Tippy's original package of twenty (few of which were ever lost), went through that in short order, and we're quickly depleting a second package (minus a few which were sent off to be a gift for someone else's cat). Besides sliding across the kitchen linoleum like a baseball player coming into home base after them, Merry enjoys batting them around in the bathtub. Knowing that I will never win this game, I just ordered a pack of 60. That should keep him busy for a month or so.