A herd of elephants is what it sounded like, but turns out, it was just Gidget and an empty paper grocery sack on the kitchen floor. She likes to get a good running start, fly into the sack, making it sli-i-i-i-i-i-i-ide as far as it can, come out of the bag in reverse, then run around to the back of it, and ATTACK the bag making as much noise as possible. Then, the game starts all over again, lasting until the bag is flattened out, or up against the refrigerator or wall, at which point, it becomes my turn.

Another fun game is one you all know about........the square shaped empty tissue box with object inside game. It's more fun for the humans though if you leave the perforated plastic that stretches across the box opening in place. That way, when little miss Gidget being the determined feline that she is sticks her entire head into the box to retrieve that object of which the survival of all life on this planet depends, then we get to watch her go in reverse around the living room with the box stuck over her head for a few seconds, until a human runs to her aid.

But for Gidget, there is no game more fun than Blue Jays in the summer. Last summer, one afternoon, we heard a bunch of commotion out front, so we all went out just in time to see Gidget in the yard across the street rolling and tumbling with a large Blue Jay, who was mysteriously missing all of his tail feathers. The bird who could only fly about as well as a chicken can, was staying a step ahead of Gidget though. Some more of the neighbors came out of their houses to watch the performance, which was making it's way towards the street, and 2 or 3 of our other cats also became part of the onlookers. That Blue Jay was doing some fine cussing at Gidget as they made their way into the middle of the street, or maybe he was sending out an SOS, because all of a sudden, the Blue Jay team grew to three. And those two new Jays didn't waste any time going to work on Gidget. So picture this.....a small, but extremely solid short haired all gray cat rolling, tumbling, and leaping into the air with a tailless, cussing Blue Jay, while two more Jays are cordially taking turns dive bombing the cat, and actually making contact, as I could see here and there little tufts of fur on her back starting to stand up each time one of the bombers scored a point. It was nothing short of amazing, and I remember thinking to myself "Dang, that Gidget is a hellion".

But Gidget seemed oblivious to the bomb attack, giving the tailless bird her full attention, with her ears pointing straight forward, her eyes as big and round and dark as I've ever seen, and her little cheeks where her whiskers come out of all poofed out, and she was breathing real hard. It must have been a scary sight to that bird on the ground with her. Then Bob ruined it all. No, not that one, I'm talking about our Manx, Bob. Because I spotted him about 20ft. or so away from where I was standing, and he was crouched down real close to the ground, running on his little toes and looking quite invisible (NOT) and headed for the street where all the business was going down. So, I decided 'game over', and recruited some of the human onlookers to help me herd those cats away from the whole scenario. Probably a good thing too, because that tailless Jay was looking pretty pooped out. He hopped into a hedge, and we lost sight of him, but we could still hear him cussing. He probably stayed mad for a good long time, and rightly so, because if Gidget had been a fraction of a second quicker that afternoon, she'd have made supper of that Jay.

Copyright © Bonnie
March 3, 2001