Making new playtimes

As the weather gets colder, I’m not always wanting to have a really long walkies. When mummy and I go out she says it’s already getting dark and I’ve noticed that there’s less birds around to chase and most of the animals have tucked themselves away for the night by the time I’m ready to play with them.

So maybe I need to find some indoor entertainment instead to burn off some energy and make a different type of playtime. You would probably think that as I’ve got three siblings that playtime is easy but it’s not always that simple. Much like humans us cats are all different and we all like to play in different ways. So I thought I’d tell you a bit about how I play with Peppar, Millie and Angelin.

First, of course Peppar, he’s 13.5 now so he sleeps a lot of the time and so I choose carefully when to play with him. He doesn’t like the really rough and tumble stuff anymore but we still have a good play when he’s in the mood, he prefers to be the one being chased rather than the one chasing but I think that’s just him being kind as he never runs so fast that I can’t follow him! He never chases me which is so kind of him as I don’t like being chased not even by my brother, it’s something that to me still scares me because of my street cat days and the thought of being chased by a predator or something that wants to harm me. With Peppar I fight and snuggle, I’m the only one allowed to cuddle into him and share his snuggle bed. He never plays too hard and as I said always makes sure that I’m able to chase him, he doesn’t run off too fast to get away from me which he could easily do.

Millie – well she’s crazy and really full on when playing, she definitely likes to be the one chasing which as I said I don’t really like so if she does this I run up the nearest cat tree to get the higher ground and the tactical advantage, I can hear when she’s trying to climb up near me, she’s not as good as climbing as I am so I can get up out of her reach before she’s even climbed the first level. Sometimes though I’ll get behind her and then she gets to be the one being chased and unlike Peppar she doesn’t run slowly so the chase is on, she might only have three legs but she’s really quick and it’s hard for me to keep up with her without bumping into things on the way. She’s also pretty good at football – not as good as me of course but she’s a really good goalie and as long as she doesn’t get too excited then we can have a good play together. Millies very excitable and when she first joined our family she wouldn’t let me play with anything, she’d just barge in and start playing with my toy. Now though she’s learned that we can play together and will sit and let me play whilst she watches and then join in but without taking the toy all for herself like she used to. Now we can play together and take turns. With Millie you have to be careful as she’ll lie in wait for me and then pounce on me, she thinks I don’t now that she’s there but my blindie super senses can smell her and hear her take even the quietest breath but I don’t let on, I don’t want to spoil her fun and I don’t want to let on to her just how good my senses really are! Then as she goes to pounce on me off I run. If she catches me a well placed shove and she loses her balance and falls over, then we can have a really good play around on the floor where I have the advantage.

With Angelin I tend to give her a little nibble on the bum to get her playing. Generally if were play fighting she goes bum first anyway so I get in there first with a little nibble. Theres not really much running around and chasing, playing with us it’s mostly wrestling, and I think mummy and daddy like us when we play as they always say “blindie fight” and they stop what they’re doing to watch. We also like to play the jumping game where mummy or daddy rustles something half way up the door frame and we have to jump really high to get it. As I can jump higher than Angelin this game often ends up with me landing on her before we then run off to play with the ball or toy that I batted away. Whoever gets there first gets to carry on playing with it but it’s not always that simple as Millie (as she can’t jump as high as me and Angelin) is often lying in wait to steal the toy away as she can see where it goes and so has the advantage on getting it away from us.

If you think it’s mean of us to exploit one another’s disabilities then don’t worry it’s not. Us cats don’t work like that, we don’t do things to be mean, we do them because that’s just what we want to do. It’s all done because we each want to win. It’s also a learning opportunity, if you don’t know what your weaknesses are and accept them then you can’t adapt. I have learnt how to listen and smell where the others are, instead of seeing them, my strength lies in my heightened senses. Angelin, however has just learnt to charge on in to any situation, she thinks that the best defence is a good offence, she just puts her head down and charges on in there, sometimes bottom first. Peppar is very wise and has learnt to just jump up out of anyone’s way either onto the back of the sofa or curl up on mummy’s pillow and just ignore all of us – until he wants to play of course. Millie runs full speed (she’s really fast even by four leg standards) and then uses sliding tackles, skidding on her nobbly (we don’t use the word stump) to take us out like bowling pins if we’re in the way on purpose or not!

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me three time, it’s coz I’m blind 😹