Playing, Sort Of...

Gus had some strange behaviors.  He is still in that late kitten zone, but he doesn't play a lot. Now this may be my own misconception, since I haven't had a kitten for a very long time.  He'll chase jingle balls, but he won't bat them around.  He'll be interested in the toy mice, but again, he doesn't know what to do with them. Finally, when we first brought him home, he was utterly terrified of anything at the end of a string on a stick. 

In this picture, I am trying to play with him. This stick has a bunch of feathers at the top, and at first I held the string down, and he would engage with the feathered end. This works as long as he is in his 'safe zone' on the ottoman.  After a few days, he finally started to show interest and not run away when I used the string end with the chirpy birdie on it.  Here he is showing interest. You can see where we lost some feathers below!

Finally, he is playing like a crazy kitten.  We played for a full 25 minutes (I timed it) before he got bored or worn out.














He even mixed it up, playing sneaky predator in the bushes, by hiding under his scratching thing! (You can see the top of his head and the top of one eye under the scratching thing).




The only thing I can guess is that nobody played with him before. He wants to do it, but I think he got used to playing with other cats, and didn't have a human to play with.  I don't know. He is still learning how to chase things that we roll up and down the hall.











He loves having toys, though.  He likes to select them and look at them and apparently sleep on them.

Here he is all tuckered out.  He didn't even have the energy to find a comfy spot to sleep!  If he ever appreciates it, he has a wealth of toys to try out and learn how to play with!