By Karen Duvall
If you walked into my house today you’d think I had kids still living at home. There are toys everywhere. Stuffed toys, plastic toys, balls… and lots of indescribable detritus that I wouldn’t label as toys but my pets would. On second thought I guess I do have kids, they’re just covered in fur and run around on four legs.
Like children, my furkids play with each others’ toys and don’t always play nice. One in particular can be rather… destructive.
Sammy (my cat): I can’t believe you ate my spider.
Kinsey (my dog): How do you know it was me?
Sammy: Gives her a baleful look. There were still pieces of it left and you’re the only one with teeth that big. I found its legs under the couch.
Kinsey: Not my fault. You shouldn’t leave your toys laying around.
Sammy: Whines. I loved that spider! It glowed in the dark and everything.
Kinsey: Well, if it makes you feel any better, the plastic tasted awful.
Sammy: Good. Serves you right.
Kinsey: And like I said. Don’t leave your toys laying around and I won’t eat them.
Sammy: How can I play with them if they’re not laying around? Besides, my spider was inside my petting box on the kitchen counter.
Kinsey: Then it must have been Cody who knocked it onto the floor.
Sammy: Probably. He does that to anything on the counter. He scoots it off with his paw.
Kinsey: You do that, too.
Sammy: It’s fun to watch it fall. Especially if it’s something that goes splat.
Kinsey: Especially if it’s something I can eat.
Sammy: Hisses. You’re worse than a goat. You eat everything.
Kinsey: Not everything. And I always leave leftovers.
Sammy: It’s not cool what you did to Cody’s weasel and his skunk toy.
Kinsey: I can’t resist the squeakers. They need to come out.
Sammy: Cody still plays with his weasel and the skunk, though. And only when he thinks no one is watching.
Kinsey: I’ve seen him carry one in his mouth around the house while he yowls.
Sammy: So have I. It’s kind of creepy. Why do you think he does that?
Kinsey: No idea.
Sammy: Searches the floor.
Kinsey: What are you looking for?
Sammy: One of your toys.
Kinsey: Why? You’re too little to eat my toys.
Sammy: But I’m not too little to hide them.
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Karen Duvall is an award-winning author with 4 published novels and 2 novellas. Harlequin Luna published her Knight’s Curse series last year, and her post apocalyptic novella, Sun Storm, was released in Luna’s ‘Til The World Ends anthology in January 2013.
Karen lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and four incredibly spoiled pets. She is currently working on a new contemporary fantasy romance series.
http://www.karenduvallauthor.com/
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Karen, you’re so funny. This could so easily be my two dogs. The older dog is so over the young puppy we now have gnawing his way through my home. He loves shredding the cardboard toy box best of all, but first he has to empty it toy by toy. 😉
LOL, Julie. 🙂 Yeah, boxes are big deal in our house, too. And plastic bags for the cats. By the time they’re done “playing” with them, they’re unrecognizable. I try to throw them away, but my husband always stops me and says, “Hey, they’re having fun with these. Don’t throw them away.” Thus the garbage strewn living room. Sigh.
We have to keep Katie’s dangly toys in a drawer and use them only during playtime to keep her from ripping them apart and swallowing fuzz or feathers or metal parts or strings. The only toys we can safely leave out are these little soft cloth balls she can bat around the house. Every time I read one of your posts, Karen, I have to laugh…and then remind myself that one cat is probably all I can handle.
Oh, the pom pom balls! My cats love them, especially my big one since he has a hard time lugging his enormous girth around. He still likes to play though. You can throw him a pom pom and he’ll bat it away. Kind of like kitty Badmitten. 🙂