Dexter and the New Toy: Push!

As I've mentioned before on these pages, our tabbycat Dexter has his own bedroom. Before he arrived on the scene, it was a sewing room, as the thirteen large containers of fabric neatly lined up against the one wall and quite a few others containing thread, zippers, and assorted sewing and craft supplies will attest.

The walls are painted with a tree, a waterfall, and some other cool stuff (for the people who lived here before us, the room was a nursery for a young child). The floor is covered with two layers of blankets, and the room is full of cat stuff: several scratching posts, two cat carriers, a litter box, and other cat toys and implements.

There is a chair for sitting. And there are even several cute cat beds, which of course, Dexter ignores. His food and water bowls sit on a tray on the floor. Dexter goes into his room around 10 p.m. at night and comes back out whenever I get up in the morning, usually around 6:30 a.m. or so.

Dexter loves his room. He takes his meals and snacks there, each of which is a happy event. During the day, he often hangs out there, lying on a blanket on a wooden table overlooking "his" yard, or playing in a sunbeam on the floor with one of his toys. He's a very lucky boy.

A couple of times a year, I tear the room apart, clean and dust and vacuum everything, and launder all the blankets and towels. That was what I had on my agenda for this morning. As the cat gets very distressed by the tearing apart (cats hate change, and I think he suspects that it all means I'm thinking about getting rid of him), I try to do it all as quickly as possible.

This morning, I had an additional couple of agenda items in mind: I wanted to find a big piece of black fleece to put over the back seat of my new car, and I wanted to file some videotapes where they belong. (The room also features see-through Rubbermaid containers of videotapes, as well as several boxes of unused hangers and glass containers.)

This was the scene after I had moved several large containers of fabric. Dexter climbed to the top of the stack, where he found he could access the cat food, cat treats, and (oh joy!) a new toy or two. He stood up on his big white back paws and dragged the new toy down, then commenced to play with it atop the stack.

Apparently the best game in town, for cats, is "push the new toy off the cliff." Dexter would push the new fuzzy toy off. I'd grab it off the floor and put it back up on top. He'd knock it back down again. The scene was pretty funny, if repetitive, and I got my camera for a few shots. ("I'll never let go, Jack!" *push!* *insert tiny screams here*)

The room is back together again, it's as clean as it has been in YEARS, and we are all happy again. (My back may be a bit sore from moving and pushing all those big containers around, but I'll live through it.) I was done with my work before lunchtime. Dexter, who usually takes  a major morning nap, was up "helping" *eyeroll* through the whole thing.

And yes, in the end, all missions were accomplished: the room is clean, the videotapes are filed, and I found two very nice black pieces of fabric for the car, one for the back seat and one for the trunk. I also found a couple of things I forgot I had, including a surprise container of all kinds of colors of thread. Hooray!

The soundtrack . . . I was reminded of that song about "I get knocked down, but I get up again!" so that is our song for this day. Here is Chumbawamba, with Tubthumping.