Cricket, The Retrieving Wonder

Have I told you that my cat Cricket fetches things? Mostly it's drinking straws. We had a big package of them that we were using for tactile therapy for Connor, and Cricket began pulling them out of the container they were in and running around the house with them. Now all of them have little kitty teeth marks in them, ensuring that they will remain cat toys forever, because I'm not drinking out of them. She runs up to you, drops one on your feet, and then does this little weaving dance in front of you until you pick it up and throw it. Straws don't go very far when you throw them, by the way. I think eight feet is about my record. She doesn't like to work too hard, though, so I guess she thinks this is adequate.

When you throw one for her, she races after it and then does this one-cat-and-straw reenactment of the Battle of Rorke's Drift, fighting against fierce odds and still managing to overcome them and triumph. She has this move that is particularly impressive where she hooks a paw under the straw, flips it up in the air, and then snatchs it out of the air with her teeth. Finally after much dodging and wrestling, she grabs the vanquished straw in her mouth and trots back triumphantly to lay it at your feet and have you throw it again. Repeat ad nauseam.

She also stands up on her hind legs on command. Sometimes. If you have food.

Crazy cat.

~Jess