Willow & the Terrible Towel Monster

I spend a lot of time wondering what goes through the minds of cats. I think it's a fascinating place. I get that sometimes I totally anthropomorphize them...thinking of them as funny little people in fur coats. But sometimes I just fantasize about what *really* goes on in those little brains...I, for one, have no doubts that while their intellect is quite different than ours, they are wonderfully bright. This gets me to one of my frequent musings: they're really aliens sent down to study us humans. Have you ever noticed that sometimes, despite knowing all your cat's favorite hiding places, you just can't locate them? That's because you happen to be looking at one of the brief moments when they've beamed back up to the mothership to report in on what crazy things we're doing down here now. Don't worry. They don't stay long. You'll walk off, and then suddenly discover that they're right in plain sight in one of the spots you already looked a half a dozen times. They gaze at you stoically. They wonder why you are out of breath and hollering their name. They blink. They get up and stretch. They decide it's time to eat.

Willow and I have a game we play. It starts with a bath towel. The towel starts out lying on the tile floor of the bathroom. Then I pick up one corner and slowly twitch the towel. Wil' launches herself onto one edge of the towel, reaches up and grabs more towel...then she flings herself onto her side, whilst holding on to the towel with front paws and maybe teeth. Then we get the "rabbit kick". I *love* the rabbit kick. This is performed on the side, holding the prey tightly with the front paws and kicking its guts out with the back feet. When she thinks it's dead, she slowly lets up. But she keeps an eye on it, because sometimes, it was only faking and comes back to life! This can go on for long periods of time...generally until I'm ready for bed.