Red light, green light, 1-2-3

Jinx, our well-dressed turkey of a cat, considers herself the middle of our three-being clan. When she and I stare each other down, I win; she’ll look away first. But when Katherine and Jinx stare at each other, Jinx actually charges poor Katherine. Jinx doesn’t actually do anything but try to get Kathy to stop looking at her, but it bemuses poor Katherine while it never fails to amuse me.

The cat has lately taken to playing a game of chicken with Katherine that reminds me of the classic kids game, Red Light Green Light, where one kid stands towards one end of a yard, and the other kids can only move when the first kid is not looking. Jinx waits for Kathy to doze off. Katherine likes to fight falling to sleep, so she tends to get heavy-lidded and then pretend that nothing was happening if I look at her. But Jinx will take the opportunity to move closer to Katherine during these little 3-second nods. What’s particularly funny about this is that when Katherine opens her eyes again, Jinx will sit, wide-eyed, staring at Katherine, not moving again until Katherine succumbs to her exhaustion. Eventually, Jinx reaches Katherine, jumps right next to her, and scares the crap out of her.

At any point, of course, I could have stopped this, since I’m watching it all very intently. But that’s not what the top cat does.

Speaking of cats, I promised some weeks ago to post a picture of Annie, the cat of Erick and Michele’s that was killed by a car. In order to secure the photo, I had to mention that Bandit, their ferret, had died just before that from a blocked bladder. Two pets in just a week died for poor Erick and Michele. Now they’re just down to one bird… and five neighborhood/stray cats that Michele will probably entice into their house… and the three raccoons that feed on the same food that they leave out for the strays… and the baby which they’ll have in December. He’s not a pet, per se, but he’ll certainly be at their tender mercies.

Anyway, here’s the late Annie and Bandit sharing a meal:

Posted by Jonathan at 08:36 AM, 16 November 2005

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