Winston: Treasures from Afar

Our human has friends all over. It’s sort of strange, not to have met nose-to-nose, and yet one feels a close friendship with someone from a distant place, even from the other side of the world. However, since my brother and I claim friends from many lands, we can relate to such friendships.

Today, Mom brought home two packages from the office. She said something about “a gift-sharing Facebook thing” with her friends. Being friendly sorts ourselves, and always enjoying a good prezzie or two, we were both totally on board with that idea!

We have the philosophy – adopted in kittenhood – that any parcel within the house is ours. We care not whose name is on the address label, we know to whom it really belongs! So we proceeded with our usual thorough inspection of the puffy envelope and an intriguing double-component crate set, just as we had as kittens.

The first item Mom picked up was the puffy envelope. “Don’t worry about the contents, just hand us the packaging and we’ll make short order of it,” said my brother. Mom declined our assistance. But when Frank discovered the boxes inside were tied with the type of ribbon for which he has a strange fascination, he was completely enraptured and he moved in, as if hypnotized. 

“Oh no you don’t!” warned Mom. “Last time you got your paws on a piece of that gauzy ribbon, you mangled it beyond recognition AND left me with a pool of kitty spit to clean up!”

Franklin then pretended disinterest with the ribbon (yeah, sure!) but gazed with rapt appreciation at the contents of the package: a necklace and earring set with pictures of… US! 

Seriously, folks, we had no idea we had ever posed for works of art, but then, Mom says we ARE works of art, so… ^^ The other box in that envelope held a beautiful item that perfectly addresses Mom’s Halloween obsession. To be tucked away carefully and only to be revealed at the proper season, she states, we are sure she will be the envy of all at her fall parties when she sports that adornment. And, she said, it's Guild Wars perfect!

 The second package came in two parts. The first contained some sort of paper object. Mom was so pleased she positively gasped when she saw it. “A drawing of my character” she squealed. Amidst murmurs of “I’m going to frame that” and “Oh cute, a painting from a little one, too” we put a bored paw to mouth and said, “Move on. Move on. Enough with the art -- that second box is tinkling, ringing, making sounds of a MOST intriguing kind!”

Mom opened the box, and inside was a selection of deluxe chocolates for her (meh, we say, but she was ecstatic) and most importantly, IMPORTED KITTY TOYS pour nous!

Mom started talking to us about “down under,” but all we really wanted was to get down under the toys. We knew what to do, and we moved into the proper mode, as Play Tester Win and Play Tester Frank.

First, we noted a catnip mouse! But we did not hurry, for as testers, we knew that before downloading the software a virus check was... I mean, before play testing, the sniff test was required. ^^

The rodent, having passed the inspection with flying colours, was then investigated for The Play Factor.

 Excellent!

Next up -- a metal ball with a jingling plushie inside! Again, a cautious, distant inspection was in order at the start.

Then actual gameplay was researched.  

5 out of 5!

Finally, the dangling ball-bell-fluffy-on-a-stick thing was ready to go.

It flew past our heads, slowly at first, then faster and faster. We went from intrigued to frenzied in about 4.3 nanoseconds! 

We tried a paw tap.

And eventually did the full leap into the air.

 (Note: My ears are back because I'm not even close to forgiving the last time he launched-and-landed -- on my tum!)

End of the day, Brother Franklin learned how to hook the metal ball with his paw and toss the ball across the room. (Well, fine, toss it about 18 inches, but it was impressive still!) I learned how to pounce and silence the wiggly stick thingie. And we rated all toys two paws up -- way up!

After a heavy evening of testing, I found a spot and settled down for...err... a closer inspection of the one toy and perhaps... *yawn*... a wee nap.

Thank you, kind friends, from all of our family! ^^