One of the many cat toys in our house is a little mouse that squeaks when the cats bat it or pick it up. I came home from work Friday night and heard a strange noise, and found the squeaky mouse in one of their water bowls.
Squeak squeak. Squeak Squeak. Underwater, mind you.
So I took the mouse out and tried to dry out the excess water with a paper towel, all the while listening to the squeaks speed up and slow down. Tossed it on the ground and for TWO HOURS it continued to squeak without provocation, slow, then fast, then outraged, then back down again.
Squeak squeak. squeaksqueaksqueak! SQUEAK!!!!
The cats were fascinated at first, circling it in small packs, one moving in to bat it, another picking it up and running with it . After an hour of this, they got upset and brought the mouse into the kitchen where I was cooking and dropped it near me. They stared up at me as if asking me to make it stop. I told ’em it’s what they got for dropping their toys in the water dishes. They do this a lot.
Finally one of our younger cats, a little plump black kitty, came up to it, her tail puffed up like a bottle brush, and the most disconcerted look on her face. When she gets upset, she (and our big white cat Foster) both look like the Staypuff Marshmallow Man in GHOSTBUSTERS when it frowns. Anyway, she did that, ran up to the mouse with a meow and proceeded to smack it repeatedly, WHAP WHAP WHAP! Then she ran away. So we finally put it downstairs where it eventually stopped squeaking unless played with. Highly amusing.
At least it’s better than finding a dead mouse on the bed with a little black kitty standing over us with a look which said: “Well fix it! That’s why I brought it to you.”
They ARE fun to watch. LOL.
haha, ours have just been fighting over who gets to sleep on my hubby’s coat. He was foolish enough to drop it on the sofa and they do love things that smell of him.
What I find especially funny is that normally the noise would have driven me crazy, but it was so much fun watching the cats try and figure this out, I just ignored the squeaking. Not sure if I could have lasted too much longer,though.
i love your cat stories! and i envy your ability to put up with the squeaking long enough to entertain the kitties (and readers).
As the gifter of the offending toy, I feel compelled to apologize, even as I laugh so hard I cry…
Beware, it may yet live to squeak another day. One of mine went through the dishwasher (I did NOT put it there) and emerged apparently DOA, only to begin squeaking again, spontaneously and without provocation. Heh….
Hah! Mo, it’s back to its normal squeaking self – squeaks if attacked. It was really funny… and I’m not sure how I put up with the two hours of squeaking, but it seemed easy at the time…