Zorro is a laid-back cat. He takes pleasure in simple things in life and is never in much of a hurry to do anything. He is extremely patient and good natured and has never once lashed out violently or even hissed in spite of Sarah and me perpetually tormenting him (like tickling his feet while he sleeps). Through and through he is a laid-back cat.
If I had to make a list of Zorro’s top ten favorite things to do, it would go something like this:
- Eating
- Sleeping in a warm lap
- Getting Pet
- Sleeping on the back of the sofa
- Chewing on ribbon
- Sleeping in the basket of pillows and blankets
- Observing insects from a safe distance
- Finding treasures under the oven – treasures typically being things he pushed under there in the first place
- Sleeping on notes/open books/homework/anything Sean or Sarah might be trying to read or study
- Shredding unopened bags of chips then knocking them off the counter
(Not quite making the top 10, but a close runner up is making direct eye contact with Sean from across the room while using the litter box)
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| Zorro enjoying his 4th favorite activity. |
As you can see, stalking, hunting and killing things do not fall into Zorro’s favorite things. We had a mouse in our last apartment and I am pretty sure Zorro let him have free run of the place. He is definitely a cat, but a lot of times I think of him more as a cat stuffed animal that just happens to be alive.
The last week Sarah and I were in San Diego before winter break, I was doing some last minute Christmas shopping and ended up next to Petco. Filled with holiday cheer, I decided that I would go into Petco and select a Christmas present for Zorro. The act of selecting a toy from the cat toy aisle could be a blog entry in itself (I found myself thinking, “If I were a cat, is this something I would want to play with?”), but ultimately I settled on what I will refer to as the “feather wand” which can best be described as a handful of blue and green feathers glued to the end of a car antenna.
Occasionally, when he is not sleeping or eating, Zorro will be playful, but it typically comes in bursts. One minute he is sleeping, then suddenly he is attacking my computer cord, and then almost magically he is asleep again. I had reservations about buying the feather wand at all (a staggering $4.37) because Zorro might never play with it at all (just like his scratching post). I needn’t have worried.
When I brought the feather wand out to play with the first time, Zorro changed into a completely different cat. I have never seen a more surprising transformation; his normally docile, somewhat glazed-over eyes became clear and sharp - the eyes of a killer. The feather wand needed to die and Zorro would stop at nothing to make sure it was his little cat paw that landed the final blow, the kitty coup de grace. In the two days of playing (before we left for Colorado and Illinois; see Snowboarding and the Contemplation of Death and Rollerskating: Not Just For Children) Zorro never tired of attacking the feather wand, and when Sarah or I eventually tired of twirling said wand, Zorro always looked a little disappointed and a little like he was vowing to finish the job next time.
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| The cold, steely gaze of a killer. |
Upon returning to San Diego, I had completely forgotten about the feather wand and I figured Zorro had as well (since he spent the break away from the apartment too)… apparently he had not.
Thursday evening, while I was packing to return to Austin for a wedding, I found the feather wand. The feathers had been systematically removed from the end of the wand, so all that remained was the part that looked like a car antenna and a little blue fuzz. At some point between Wednesday and Thursday Zorro found the feather wand’s hide out (which was cunningly located on the kitchen counter) and proceeded to finish his vendetta once and for all. I looked for the feathers that must surely be scattered around the apartment somewhere (possibly under the oven for later treasure discovery), but there were none to be found – I am pretty sure that is because not only did Zorro mercilessly pluck the feather wand, he ate the feathers too.
Maybe Zorro is not as laid back as I initially thought.
I would like to share that Zorro's favorite thing to do while he was at our house was to personally open the kitchen cabinets, just enough to get inside. Then he would explore, with the cabinet door shut behind him. Sometimes he would actually hang out in a cabinet for over an hour; just chillin there, in the dark. At some point, he would saunter out, like he was done chillin in that cabinet and it was no big deal...
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