Kenzie, my well behaved calico sweetie doesn't seem to care for the toys I buy for her, but instead plays with the things she finds on the floor. I have a rule, which I do not believe she's ever broken: what's on the floor can be played with, but not what's on the bed, table, etc. (Actually, I don't think I've ever found any evidence she ever got up on a table or kitchen counter; she's a little angel.)

This morning, she found a small cardboard box set by the recycling area; it had had a new telephone inside. The box was about 5" wide by 3" tall by 8 or 9" long. She was having a great time peering into it for hidden treasure (I've been known to 'hide' little treats around, to give her something to do while I'm at work).

For some reason, she thought this box *had* to have a couple of potato chips in it, and she was determined to get them. She batted the box around, and investigated it from every angle; no opening except the one. This box was typical: it had the larger flap that closes the box, and the two smaller flaps inside.

Kenzie couldn't get her paw very far in the box because of the flaps. I was getting some breakfast when a meowing kitty came running *backwards* into the kitchen with her head stuck in the box! The smaller inner flaps had bent inwards enough to get her head in, but then acted like a one way butterfly valve, not allowing her head back out. I laughed so hard when she came running into the kitchen, I nearly had breakfast cereal coming out my nose.

Kenzie was careening about the kitchen at pretty high speed, backwards, trying to pull hear head out of the box. Like a little bumper car, each time she hit her rump on something, she changed directions. When I saw her headed towards the basement stairs, I barely had time to get to her before what could have been a nasty tumble down the steps.

I picked her up and gently removed her little head prison; she purred at me in her little combination purr and meow, that comes out like a series of little chirps. I gave he a good ear scritching and set her down on the floor. She was about 2 feet from the box; head and paws on the floor, and her rump waving from sized to side. She pounced on the box and gave it a big *whap*, sending it 10 feet across the floor. She went over to it and watched it for a few moments. It didn't move; it was now officially 'dead'. With head and tail held high, Kenzie left the room, convinced she had won the Battle Of The Box.

by a rec.pets.cats.anecdotes contributor
November 2, 2000