Ekanath is bored.
As any cat- owner can tell you a bored cat is able to not only get themselves into mischief but also has an unveiled capacity for crating it. Bengals especially so. They are notorious for their high energy levels and as a result are quite demanding when it comes to stimulation.
Unfortunately, this does not go well with prolonged periods of convalescence, such as the one that Ekanath is undergoing. His energy has returned to normal, and he is almost well again but he can't go out until his fur grows back. A cat's fur is the only protection that they have from scrapes and scratches be that from arguments with other cats or just from thorns or roses. - Our garden has both a wild rose bush and a hawthorn. As a result, he is still on house rest and what is more, overnight we lock him in our bedroom with us so he can't get into too much trouble...
Or so we thought.
Turns out that a determined cat can find mischief anywhere.
I was awoken in the early hours of around 4 am by the sound of Ekanath tearing around the room at high speed, howling as if the hounds of hell – or worse still HMRC (our version of the IRS to our colonial readers) were after him. At first I thought this was just the 'Bengal Zooms' – the tendency that all cats have to race around like crazy at inopportune times but which Bengals seem to be able to keep up for an hour or so at a time – long after other breeds have worn themselves out and decided to have a wee nap. It wasn't.
I realised fairly quickly that I could hear a jingling noise over his howling and the sound of him careening around the bedroom like a demented stock car racer.
Now, about a week earlier Marie had come home from trading at a cat charity fund raising fair where she had been selling catnip mice, Valerian mice and other cat themed accessories she makes. She had made a little bit of money towards his vets bill and had bought him a bag of toys from a neighbouring stall. Among the contents were two toys he absolutely loved – a catnip mouse that is smaller and more colourful than the ones Marie makes which he loves to throw around and abuse (He tends to use hers as a pillow or a kickaroo) and a small silver ball with a bell in it that he took a liking to.
This is what the silver ball actually looks like. This is how most of us would perceive it.
Now, the silver ball kept getting lost under the bed or the wardrobe so I tied it to a spare dangler wand form one of his old 'Da Bird' toys (he has several of these but is quite rough with them so he destroys the feathered ends frequently) The silver ball had a place on it intended for tying it to something and we would often play with it together, I'd dangle the ball and he would swat it or jump for it and so on.
Now, you should never let a cat play with a dangler toy (you know the things with the wands for you to grip then a long elastic string with a toy on the end) unsupervised, and I don't. I put them all in his toy holder overnight which is a long upright umbrella stand like thing I made which I keep next to the bed – right by head as a matter of fact. Turns out that Ekanath can retrieve his toys from that when he wants to, and he can do it inches form my sleeping head without waking me!
Unfortunately – and This is why you shouldn't let them play with this type of toy unsupervised – the dozy fur-ball had managed to get the string bit wrapped round his paw and had panicked. He had taken off at the run and of course the silver ball had 'followed him', tied as it was to his back paw.
By the time I woke up he was terrified and doing circuits of he room.
I positioned myself by the chest of draws as he raced along the window ledge, knowing he would then head over the drawers, I could catch him, untangle him and then calm him down.
Or so I thought.
It was at that point that I got a high speed Bengal right in my face for the second time since we got Ekanath. Regular readers will remember the last time involved a cat toy as well – in fact I think it was the exact same 'Da Bird' that I had used for parts on this toy after Ekanath obliterated the feathery bit.
The result of this collision was that I acquired claw scratches on the side of my face and the top of my head where Ekanath had used by skull as a springboard, but at least I had managed – albeit without any conscious effort on my part – to untangle him from the silver ball. I know that because I managed to get that smack int eh mouth as well!
This is how Ekanath now sees the silver ball.
We got Ekanath claimed down eventually but now he is terrified of the silver ball, viewing it not as a cat toy but convinced, in his mind, that it is the killer drone silver sphere from the 'Phantasm' movies.
I keep it in a drawer now where he can't find it, because every time he catches sight of it he races off in a panic, half expecting to see the 'Tall man' hunting him down, I suspect.
All joking aside though – the moral of this story is: Do not let your cats have access to cat-dangeler style toys when they are unsupervised. Keep them somewhere that the cat absolutely can't get at them on its own.