Monday, December 15, 2008

Cheap Entertainment

It’s always important for people to realize that it is our own personal responsibility to decrease our consumption of the Earth’s resources. That’s why I never waste any money on buying toys for our pets. Koly’s ball collection has amassed through the years simply by finding tennis balls in the fields that we walk through. Both of our cats just love to play with paper and cardboard and there are always scraps to be found in my art supplies. I just can’t justify spending money on bits of material and plastics that have been created by children in a factory in some other part of the world.

During the workweek Joanne usually wakes up a bit before I do. She enjoys drinking a warm cup of tea while playing with the cats as the sun is rising. I didn’t realize – until just last week – that she has been using this time to train our youngest cat, Elly.


Last weekend, Jo’ and I were watching a movie on TV and I looked down to see Elly staring at me. There was a ball of paper sitting just in front of her. “Throw it for her,” Joanne told me. I did. Like a bolt of lightning, Elly was off. She caught the ball in mid-air and then she spent a minute or so playing with it on the carpet. Then she disappeared under the couch.


A minute or so had passed when suddenly Elly appeared at the top of the back of the couch… with the ball of paper in her mouth. She walked over to Jo’ and placed the ball very carefully onto her shoulder. Then she took a step back and stared at Joanne… waiting! I couldn’t believe it. Our cat plays fetch!!!!


Joanne laughed at the dumbfounded look that was on my face. She told me that she had been teaching Elly how to play fetch for about a week. When Jo’ picked the ball of paper off of her shoulder, Elly scurried along the back of the couch, jumped onto the arm of another chair and then waited for the throw.


This went on for almost half an hour, with about sixty throws of the ball. Finally, Elly was tired and she decided she needed to curl up on my lap for a well deserved rest.

While Joanne was playing fetch with Elly, I knew that I had to get a couple of photos to capture this event. I must have taken about twenty five photos trying to capture the ‘toss and chase’ but not a single one turned out. Elly was just too fast for the camera! I’m glad that I was using a digital camera and not a film camera or I would have been upset with the wasting of that film.

Have a great week and remember

Be peaceful
Be kind
Cuz
We can’t rewind

Our actions of today
Build the histories of tomorrow
So let’s try to build a world
With a little less sorrow.

Jim

No comments: