After consulting the veterinarian and sending them some cat nudes, as requested, I was given the go-ahead to take off the dunce cone. Once I cut the cloth tie, he immediately sprang out of my grasp like a furry torpedo to chase his newfound freedom. He stopped a distance away, as if out of my reach to put it back on, and licked his shoulder. He is finally able to clean his greasy self. Granted, all that oil might have come from my own hands.
He can properly attack me at will now as he often does, in a playful way of course. Sometimes, if we go at him with our feet, he gets genuinely angry as evidenced by his back-turned ears and wide eyes. A behavior I still haven't decoded yet is one I refer to as "locking on". He does it to my slippers, his Silvester toy, and sometimes when he play bites my fingers. He bites down and holds while pulsing his tongue, which also causes his eyes and ears to twitch at the same rhythm as his licking. When he was a baby, he used to do this to the very edge of his ceramic water bowl. Have any of you cat owners ever seen this?
The little stuffed Silvester is his go-to for venting his natural rage and wrestling with. However, his favorite chase toy, by far, are make-up sponges. He likes them because they are very light and bouncy. Their asymmetrical shape also causes abrupt changes in direction while he's chasing and dribbling them. They are also very responsive to his claws. He's playing with one right now, actually. He often loses them or tucks them away somewhere only to rediscover them later with newfound excitement. Sometimes he comes out of the blue with a sponge of a color we haven't seen for along time. He can entertain himself for hours with these. I don't need to be involved, but he will also sometimes bring them to me so that I could launch them for him to chase. He fetches it on his own terms.
I went to the dollar store to buy him some new ones not too long ago. I had put the pack on the conveyor belt and the cashier scanned them. The woman in front of me exclaimed, "That's not mine!" When I said it was mine, the cashier girl laughed at me. Perhaps she thought I was joking but there was no smile on my face. Her outburst was a bit inconsiderate, I thought. Maybe shoe thought they were for myself instead of the more logical explanation that they might be for someone else. She might have also been laughing at her own mistake. I probably thought too hard about this. Anyways, I went home and delivered the new "toys" to a very grateful Luxe and he immediately got to work on one.
After a strong play session, he sprawls out on the floor with his ribs demonstrating quick and heavy breaths. Not long after he will hum and jump up to lay next to or top of me. He recharges during his long nap, only waking up because I have to get up to use the washroom, which is his favorite room. He is the most docile in there and insists on sitting on my lap, where he'll eventually curl up and get comfortable again. The only thing is... I don't plan on staying there! So sometimes I'll lean with my elbows on my knees to block him. "Meow. Meow," Luxe protests. He learned a new workaround, though. He jumps on the sink and then hops onto my back where he sits and affectionately rubs his face against the back of my head. I sort of like this new habit of his. It's better than him unrolling the toilet paper!
With his cone long gone, I can put his collar back on. Aww, look at him. He looks like a civilized person again! The color lilac suits him well. Sometimes I look at him and wonder... You've got to be feral! Well, aren't all cats? Humans never domesticated them. They 'domesticated themselves'. This is evident in their independence and unruliness. A man that does not like cats is a red flag. He is a man that craves control over everything, even other beings. he would rather have a dog, which will obey his every command without question and despite maltreatment. People like them because of their unconditional love. A cat, on the other hand, doesn't have to like you. They will play favorites.
It's time to read while the cat sleeps. He might come over and lay across my right shoulder. He will sleep there, forever. As long as I don't stir. Or at least as long as it takes for me to need to go to the washroom again. Then he will play again and the cycle will continue. I've been feeding him less, only as much as he can finish because my senior cat will eat all the surplus. She was thin as a bone but she's bulking up again now. There I times when I won't even specifically feed her but serve Luxe enough on purpose so that she can finish off the rest from his bowl. I guess I'm encouraging her.
That's all for the Caturday report this week. Enjoy the weekend and thanks for stopping by!