Taking the High Ground

We don't have a cat tower; it is surprisingly hard to find a good one in Brooklyn, and shipping costs are too high for ordering over the internet. So we keep a rickety wooden ladder up in the bedroom, and our nimble wards enjoy playing on it. Mr. Beans' favorite game is when he sits on top of the ladder, I swing the mouse on a wire toy near him, he grabs it, puts the mouse in his mouth, then jumps off the ladder, gallops down the hallway and into the living room - my job is to chase him and cry, "where are you going, where are you going?!".

The Beansie game reminds me of one of the funniest scenes Ronnie every witnessed. When Beansie was a very small 5 month old, I had some take-out food that included a rolled-up pita bread. Beansie grabbed the pita in his mouth, and I started chasing him around the apartment because I didn't want him to eat all that white flour. The roll was almost 1/2 his size at that point. With the size perspective, and his relatively small head, he looked like a saber-tooth tiger running with a huge bone. He hid under tables, ran around the back of chairs, and I'm yelling at Ronnie to help block him, but Ronnie was too busy laughing his head off at what I admit was a very comic scene. In the end, Beansie jumped with it into the litter box. Suffice it to say, no pita for me or the Bean.

Aaaanyway, yesterday we had to move the ladder to the kitchen. Beansie somehow got up on the high shelf above the cabinets and was nervous about coming down. We thought he could jump to the ladder, but Lola decided to go for the block. The moment after Beansie made his way down, Lola went up to claim the space and Beansie played on the ladder.

You can just see Shelagh's wonderful cat art calendar in the background of the first and last photos.