You Buy ‘Em Toys and They Just Want to Play With the Box

We have mice. No, not the squeaking kind the cats bring in, nor the computer controllers, but the kind of mice one goes to Petco, buys, and brings home on purpose, in order to amuse the four-legged creatures that share our home.

We have five cats, most of them under 3 years old, so we actually have a house full of kittens. So, for the last two Christmases, they have gotten catnip mice toys in their stocking. They’ll play with them a while, but then they’re back to looking for live things to drag inside.

Only today, someone tossed a balled-up piece of paper on the floor, and the feline frenzy began. They must have batted and chased that thing a mile around on the hardwood floors, occasionally sliding into a piece of furniture in mid-pounce. I just sat here and smiled at them, then went into the living room to pick up the unused cat toys and return them to the cat-basket. I guess next year, I’ll just clean out the office files and let them do the paper-shredding for me.

Speaking of boxes, what is it about an empty box that just beckons to a cat? If there’s an empty box somewhere in the house, you can bet that at some point, there will be a cat in it. Same goes for kids. I’ve seen my kids curl up in boxes smaller than a computer monitor and say, “Mommy, there’s a package for you!” Awww. Come to think of it, I’ve also had my son hand me a box, saying the same thing. I thought it was cute until the box meowed. “Good grief! Let the cat out of the box!” “But the cat was already in the box. I just closed the top.”

Today I cleaned out our desks and organized my stationery and greeting cards. I try to send out one letter per week to someone, just to keep that quaint old-fashioned custom alive. I read a lot of books that are set in the Victorian era, and I am often amused when one of the characters scrambles to their desk and jots a note to hand to the courier, who dashes off down the lane on his trusty steed while the lady or gentleman waits anxiously in the parlor for a reply. I don’t often get, nor do I expect, replies to my letters, but they are extremely satisfying to send. By the post office, not by horse.

I also decided today to put some of my unused dishes in storage. There are a lot of bowls and serving dishes in my cabinets, and some I use…some I don’t. I have gravy-boats, but I don’t make gravy that needs to sail. I have pickle servers, but we don’t really eat pickles. I have a sushi set, but most of the time we just eat sushi out of the plastic tray from the grocery store. Then there is the punch bowl and matching cups, but I can’t even remember the last time I served punch that wasn’t in a squeeze-packet. So, I’m just going to wrap up all these treasures in newspaper and hide them in the attic until I can “discover” them the next time I rummage around up there.

But I can’t do it right now. There’s a cat in the box.