Ralph's A Player

Longfellow wrote a lovely poem, The Children's Hour, about his daughters and their playtime at dusk.  Ralph, my furry boy, plays morning and night.  He rests during the day; he needs to keep up his strength.

Dogie, Bessie Anne's predecessor, loved her toys.  She never tore out the stuffing or chewed off a nose or ear.  Her favorite was a hedgehog that she protected and carried everywhere.  Victor, the cat who moved here with us, was also given toys (usually by Deb and Craig).  Victor never got to play with his toys.  Dogie, so careful with her own possessions, destroyed or hid nearly every toy Victor ever had.  Cat and dog got along beautifully, with this one exception.

Ralph began pulling toys out of Bessie's basket of goodies, dragging them through the house.  Bess doesn't seem to mind.  The other day I found a few little cat toys that had been given to Victor and I'd rescued before Dogie could chomp them to bits.  I gave these toys to Celeste and Ralph.  Celeste will occasionally wrestle with Ralph, but is too sedate to romp with a toy.  Ralph, on the other hand, went berserk.  His favorite is a small, furry thing about the size of and looking much like a hamster.  Ralph flings his hamster in the air, tosses and then chases the thing down the stairs, and rolls with it in paroxysms of ecstasy.  Unusual for a cat, he maintains sustained interest and plays for the better part of an hour with his toy.

Ralph also likes to play in water.  He patty-paws in the shower stall as soon as I step out.  He goes head first to splash in the toilet.  He sits on the sink to watch the water swirl as I brush my teeth, and would very much like to help wash dishes in the kitchen.

Celeste sits on my lap and we watch Ralph zing up and down the hall, race through the room, leap on the sill to bat at the screen to scare the hummers, and in general make a fool of himself.  Unless he jumps on sleeping Bessie Anne (and he does that), Bessie ignores his antics.  Celeste gives me a look and says, "He's a boy.  What're ya gonna do?"  Ralph's a player.