Apparently it’s a sign of love, or that we are terrible hunters, that cat’s feel the need to bring us presents. I suppose that it could be that they want to play- but seeing as this happens after a play session I do question that possibility.
My cats know the routine. Around 8pm they both appear and decide that my husband and I are worthy of their attention which they showcase with a nuzzle, a 5 minute tummy tickle and then a grand show of their butt hole, before hopping off and back to the cat tree for another snooze. As the time ticks closer to 9.9.30pm, they know that the minute I get up from the sofa, its time for all attention on them. It is an obstacle course between avoiding and picking up dog toys, to avoiding the cats and their meows of excitement as they scurry under and between my legs, racing me up the stairs. It’s play time. They have a multitude of toys, but only the one that I keep locked away and ONLY bring out at playtime is the soul focus of their attention. Currently it’s a pink mouse with a tail of ribbons attached to a flirt pole. Sushi (the ‘kitten’ who will be 1 next month) dominates playtime. Sometime he thinks that he is Spiderman, or Superman as he flies through the air trying to catch his ‘prey’, knocking over all sorts of things during his escapade. Saké (better known as Mummy),as you will have guessed, is his mum. Previous stray to Queen of the house. A good move up in life I would say.
She does make me question her actions sometimes though. During these play sessions, whilst she acts all enthusiastic to play a bit of ‘cat and mouse’, when it comes down to it, she stays hidden in her castle of cardboard boxes and watches. Her eyes staring at you, ready and waiting. I have concluded the following:
- As they have been indoor cats for the past 10 months, this is Sushi’s training session on how to hunt
- She is being a good Mother and letting Sushi play while she relaxes
- She likes to stalk her prey and attack when they least expect… The problem with this is that after 10-15 minutes of play time, I put the toy away, give them their treats and say goodnight.
I then lie in bed and read or browse on my phone. Within 5-20 minutes of us being in bed, Mummy starts her ever so loud meow as she edges closer to our room. Sure enough, every night she has her favourite toy. A blue mouse, dropped at her feet and looking at us for acknowledgment. “Thank you Mummy!”, we say and retrieve the mouse and put it away.
Was that a present? A food offering? Or a demand for me to play with her Royal Highness? Who knows. We are still figuring it out.
This is not the end of it.
About a month ago, in the middle of the night the meows started. We got up to investigate. Our ‘present’ was a zip lock bag. It was hilarious. This was brought to us a few nights in a row. But that’s not all. Since then we have been showered with ‘love’.
A bag of croutons: A bag within a bag. Quite full and quite heavy…although I suppose lighter than a pigeon or real mouse. It was pretty amusing. Maybe we didn’t have our fill of croutons for dinner. Thanks Mummy??
A half eaten Hershey’s chocolate bar: And before you think my cat ate the chocolate- she didn’t. We just decided not to be piggies and eat the whole bar in one go. Unfortunately for my husband he only noticed it when he got up in the morning to let our puppy out. It was a near miss of having chocolate between his toes, reminding him of black cotton mud.
An unused pooh bag: Hubby recognised the green bag, associated it with our dog and her poop, and in that split second thought for sure that Mummy had brought us her poop. Not the case (thankfully). But a pooh bag. Really mummy? Cat’s are supposed to be clean animals. Not bringing us the very thing that we pick up shit with. Literally.
A patch from my husbands uniform: Hubby was unimpressed with this one. Not specifically because she had brought it up, but because if he hadn’t seen it before our shark of a puppy, it would have been the second patch destroyed. Funnily enough though, this is the only non piece of plastic so far.
A packet of screws. This tickled me. It was a small bag, but relatively heavy. It was for a project that I had planned and perhaps Mummy was trying to enforce herself as co helper.?
I am sure that Mummy is going to bring us many more random ‘gifts’. As we get into Spring and warmer days, the cats will be allowed outside and I dread the day that we become worthy of a real mouse or bird.
A Kenyan Slice of Life 