Kittens at Play and Not

Toffee and Harris are making a ruckus as I write this, entertaining themselves with simple toys: an empty boot box, a red fabric ball, and a doubled Trader Joe's shopping bag (handles cut for safety). Toffee likes to put the ball in his mouth and growl at Harris, imitating Marlon Brando's citrusy death scene in The Godfather. (Toffee must have watched lots of movies before he arrived here. He's a PBS fan, too; he was devastated about Matthew on Sunday night and watched the finale twice with me.)

While cats love a stable daily routine, they get bored with the same toys, so I try to give them something different whenever I can. They also find new ways to entertain themselves. Last night, they had a great time attacking each other under a freshly washed bed sheet I'd spread out to finish drying. Harris is still crazy about dripping faucets so he gets a little water time every day. For years I kept pinecones in a blue-and-white bowl, never imagining that they were waiting patiently for Harris to come along and liberate them to fulfill their destiny as cat-hockey pucks. Have you ever stepped on a pinecone in the dark in bare feet?

The kittens like to play in the morning, nap in the afternoon, and play again after dinner. Toffee sleeps on the bed with us at night; Harris still loves to nurse on our ears at all hours but a little less often these days.

I'm a sucker for any kitten lying on its back. Show me one on Petfinder and adoption bells start ringing in my head. When I see Harris lying around like this, I could fill out his shelter application all over again:

I love to see the kittens sleeping together, too, with their little white feet entangled: