Crazy Cats!!! (and Dog!)

We were cracking up this afternoon. Our many thanks to Greg and Melanie for providing today's entertainment. G & M gave the cats a "fishing pole" toy with feathers on the end for Christmas. The cats loved it, in fact, they kind of went berserk - especially Flatt who is the more gonzo of the two kittens anyway. It took about 10 seconds for the girls to realize this was a toy that they were allowed to play with and after that, Flatt took flight. She started jumping to heights we'd never seen her reach before and then, since she had no control over where she'd land, she'd often end up by landing on Scruggs or Elmo.

This frenzy of play by Flatt & Scruggs got Elmo all excited and worked up. He wanted in on the action too. Since he can't jump and reach the feather toy like the kittens (nor was he all that interested in it), he instead located the closest kitten toy he could find (thank you Mark & LeAnn for what you didn't realize was both a cat toy AND a dog toy!) and started bouncing around with it in his mouth. The small black and white item in Elmo's mouth is a "cow" cat toy, meant to be chased around like a stuffed mouse.

Once the girls started to get tired (Flatt actually started panting - something I don't think I've ever seen in a cat) and started to slow down, Elmo was still pretty wound up and wanting to play. He wouldn't leave Flatt alone. Even though he looks like he's pretty scary in this shot, it's really just Elmo in his doggy play-stance; goading Flatt on to more play. Both kittens have learned to play with Elmo and to realize that even though he's still significantly bigger than they are, he's pretty much a pansy who can be pushed around - or ignored depending on their moods.

One of the interesting side effects of playing with the girsl, especially Flatt, is that their pupils get HUGE when they start to play . Chris took this shot and it wasn't until we uploaded it that we saw the amazing effect. The stars in Flatt's eyes are not due to any special modifications on our part... that is how her eyes showed up straight from the camera's flash reflecting in her eyes. Truly amazing and pretty funny to boot. She looks like something straight out of a bad horror/sci-fi movie... attack of the killer kitten zombies!

I really can't convey well in words how funny and crazy all this was when it was happening. I just hope you all enjoy looking at the pictures - we sure had fun taking them.