Dear Ferret Folks-
Lately, my catlet (He's too big to be a kitten, too small to be a cat)
Sterling of the lusterous silver fur has been looking for things in my
house to scratch. His favourite is the broad back of my velvety green
sofa. Needless to say, I am not amused. Not at all. About two weeks ago
I started pricing scratching posts, and I was *amazed* by how much they
cost. Twenty dollars for a dumb wooden post covered with bad carpet.
Now, I am a cheap Yankee, and twenty dollars was out of the question.
So I have been hunting. Wal-Mart, Aubuchons, Petco, Stop and Shop pet
section, Job Lots, all too expensive. The cheapest model was at Stop
and Shop, for eighteen dollars plus change. Not for this cheap Yankee.
I was starting to think about carpet scraps and two by fours....nails
and a hammer and a staple gun.
Fortunately, I was spared the effort. This morning I found something
wonderful in Big Lots. I love Big Lots. They sell all the
bizarre...well...crap that no other place does. Flamingo toilet bowl
scrubbers. Spices that nobody has ever heard of. Hair care products for
African American ladies that I have never heard of. The cheapest panty
hose on earth. And right now, they are getting all of the Christmas
stuff in. In order to cram it all in, they threw most of their pet
section into wire bins, and reduced it to half price so they can use
the shelves for tiny plug-in singing Santas, and Reindeer sno-globes
and such like.
AHA! That means that they had two story carpeted pet condos on sale,
for *fifteen* dollars. Now, I've seen these for thirty and thirty
five, elsewhere, so my tiny, cold, cheap Yankee heart started to beat
real fast. At least three or four times a minute. Thses condos are
cylinders, about three feet high covered with soft carpeting. There are
two stories, one on top of the other, with entry holes one over the
other. The little inside cubbies are also carpeted. Very nice, very,
very nice....and cheap. I was feeling so good, I actually sprang for
two packs of marked down fur mice, and a little thing that looks like
a multicolored butterfly on an elastic string. With a bell.
I brought it home and put it on the living room floor. Puma walked
right up to it and said "Oh, this is mine, now." and scampered right
into one of the little cubbies. Well, Sterling thinks it is his, too.
He tried to go into the lowest cubby, and Puma bit him on the face,
hard. ROWWWER!! Gosh, that is always an awful noise. He decided the
upper cubby was a better bet, so he jumped up into it. He hung part way
out, to see if Puma wanted to fight for the thing. She did. She darted
partway out of the lower cubby, and twisted around to face her rival.
Sterling aimed a big, double paw at her head, which she ducked. She
climbed halfway out of the lower cubby, and lunged for his paw.
ROWWWER!!, again. Puma has biting down to an art. They spent ten
minutes alternating heads in, heads out, trying to chew their opponent,
and to win the deluxe carpet covered two storied condo for their very
own. The dog, the Noble Allis Chompers, mooed her dismay from the
kitchen. She wanted to play, too, and knew I wouldn't let her, because
she is too big. She was right, I think she's too big to play that game.
She could only look on, with big, hurt eyes. I never let her have any
fun.
Ping woke up and went to see what the fuss was all about. He sized the
situation up and pretty much decided that both Sterling and Puma were
idiots, who wants a carpet covered two story condo? Not Ping is He. He
showed them both his tail, and left to go burrow into the yellow sofa
for a long nap.
As I write this, Sterling is asleep, half hanging out of the top cubby
of the condo, one long leg with its club of a double paw hanging down
limply. Puma is curled up in the lower cubby, nose tip to tail,
sleeping deeply.
Stalemate. For now.
Alexandra in MA
[Posted in FML 5419]
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