Extreme Sports

Dom likes to live on the wild side. Today when I had nicely set him up with some safe blocks to play with while I checked my email, he took matters into his own hands. Dominic now has a new, fun way to get the adrenaline rush. He has his own indoor extreme sport to play.

Kitty-baiting.

It seems like a harmless enough way to play with your beloved feline. You find something dangly and wave it around for the cat to pounce at. However, playing this with Austen is fraught with danger. She loves pouncing and scratching too much. After a while she gives up on chasing the dangly thing and goes straight for the hand holding it.

I had barely switched the computer on before I heard giggling. Any Mum knows that a child's happy laughter is always cause to check what they're up to immediately so I spun round only to see that Dom was kneeling in front of the cat while she napped on the bean bag.

Not content to let sleeping cats lie, Dom had grabbed a cable from nearby and was chucking it out to her like a lasso. I was impressed that he had such good dangling skills, and so, it seems, was the cat. She woke up immediately interested in the cable but just batted it half-heartedly with her claws retracted.




"Ah, good," I thought. "She's being gentle and isn't too keen. I'll grab the camera and take some cute photos."



The game continued innocently enough. Austie was purring, Dom was laughing his face off, and gently swishing and draping the cable near the cat. A couple of times she lost interest, so he leant forward and touched her with his fingers. I was amazed - normally it is highly inadvisable to attempt to pat or put your hand anywhere near the cat when she is in 'chase the dangly thing' mode, but she remained placid and obligingly caught the cable.



Dom was thoroughly enjoying the game and dangling the cable increasingly higher in an attempt to get the cat to move up and out of her comfy spot in the bean bag.

Unfortunately, it worked.

For some reason, something snapped and Austie transformed into...



CRAZY POUNCING CAT!

As soon as I caught sight of those frenzied eyes and sharp claws, I swooped in and pulled Dominic out of there. However, this meant I did move my arms in front of Austie when she was in attack mode.

I now have a cat scratch on my arm. Dom also got a little nick on the back of his hand but he didn't even seem to notice - he was too busy giggling hysterically at the sight of the pouncing attack cat.

Of course I must in fact give the cat credit for the extreme and rather uncharacteristic tolerance she shows towards Dominic. Given that he shrieks loudly everytime he sees her, frequently ends up waking her up from naps by stroking her or making noise, and tries to rub his face on her, she is incredibly gracious and good with him. She is great at visiting him when we read books or play in the lounge and she purrs when he strokes her even though it's really somewhat uncoordinated and vigourous patting.

But then I have to say nice things about the cat now. She just jumped up on the keyboard and started smarming me.