Their plan will be unfurled...

[vettecat]

For quite a while now, sdavido has been referring to the kittens, half-jokingly, as "Pinky and the Brain." You can probably guess which is which, but if not... Leela is very much a Cat of Action (not to say she isn't also intelligent), Minerva is more of an analytical observer. We had a demonstration of that tonight.

SD- picked up a new toy at the supermarket. It's a motorized stuffed mouse; you pull the tail, and the mouse scoots across the floor as the tail retracts. Tonight while we were in the kitchen, he called the kittens over and demonstrated the mouse for them. Then we stood back to watch them react.

At first, Minerva stood back and watched while Leela batted at the mouse. Then SD- wound it up and let it go again. Leela gave it another swat, but it doesn't travel very far (it just kind of wiggles briefly), and she seemed to lose interest. Minerva went over and picked it up in her mouth, then held the mouse between her paws and pulled on the tail with her teeth. She held on and watched while it retracted, swatted it a bit, then grabbed it and pulled on the tail again.

After a few minutes of this (the arc from introducing the mouse to watching Minerva grab it took maybe a minute) both kittens seemed to decide they had better toys, and wandered off. So it didn't get used for very long. But it was really interesting... we had wondered whether one or both of them would figure out the mechanism, but didn't expect it to happen so fast. Wow.

Comments

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

do you mind if i share this with a friend and my step-sister (with sd-'s username redacted)? they would think this a hoot.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Not at all. Actually I guess I could just make it public... I've gotten into the habit of locking anything at all personal, but now that I think about it, there's no reason this needs to be.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Please do not support Hartz by buying their products. http://www.hartzvictims.org/

Hartz products hurt animals. Some cats die after using Hartz products, others are severly injured and end up with neurological issues the rest of their lives. (I feel strongly about this and would like to see Hartz shut down.)

There are plenty of other pet toys and products that can be used instead.

I highly recommed Smartykat Products, Beside being great toys, the company is awesome. I wrote them a letter once about one of their toys, making a suggestion to improve it, they wrote me back, saying they would consider it and sent me a box of free cat toys. Super nice people. My cats absolutely love anything I bring home made by Smartykat.

Minerva sounds like she's going to grow up to be one smart kitty.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for the information. I just checked the product locator to see where the other toys are sold, I'll have to watch for them. And, yes, it does look like we chose the right names. :-) (Leela, from what I understand, was a hunter-type; Minerva, well, you know...)

[mom2boaz.livejournal.com]

do they play with the same kind of mice that Sheharazade used to play with? I just recently saw them at the pet store and thought of you.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Yes, among others... they're getting a lot of toys. :-)