Montana’s Nyx at Play

Nyx's Notes: Volume 1, Chapter 4: Playtime Anytime

A cat is still a predator, and a kitten's play is still predatory by nature.  It's amazing to watch this activity by instinct, without a mother nearby to teach the skills.  Nyx will crouch low, wind up her butt, then charge-pounce onto the unsuspecting toy.  She pins down the prey for the kill and the eating.  Two fuzzy worms on a plastic fishing pole have half of their colorful fuzz scattered over the living room carpet.  A little stuffed Peeps Easter bunny is now big game.  Her property law is simple; anything I can get my paws on is fair game for my teeth.  Hands and feet are no exception.

Give Nyx a cat toy plastic ball with a bell inside, and the mad soccer skills come out.  I'll sign her up for the women's team when she is grown.

Mentioned this before, she has the claws and the strength to solo free climb the furniture, a bedside and a standing human's leg.  Denim pants provide the best protection.  Any thinner material and we feel the needle claws.

The hangup living with Nyx is that anytime awake is playtime, and she wants to handle anything we are using.  Whatever I'm doing, she wants a piece of the action.  Even as I try to write this on a laptop sitting on a baking sheet, she sneaks a tag on my wrists from under and between my legs.

Nyx tries to learn human skills and help me out at the desk but struggles with a pen.  Biting the paper leaves a pair of punctures like the removal of a staple.

At one point I finally had enough of her antics and sprayed her with water.  Her responding move was sheer brilliance: take cover behind the laptop screen.  She seemed to say, "Go ahead, spray me again; you'll only fry this machine."

We get a reprieve when Nyx finally runs out of steam and takes a nap.  Then she wakes up and away we go again.

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