Playing with the Cats

     Before the cats come back and hog the desk top, I'm going to type my next observation regarding harmless addictions. Speaking of cats, this summer, I downloaded a few "apps for cats" on my iPad 2 (put in quotation marks because that's how I searched for them in the App Store). I tried them out on my cat-away-from-home cat (a friend's cat that I play with while I'm on vacation). She played a little bit with one of the apps, called Fun and Games for Cats, but she wasn't really that interested in any of them (I have six such apps for cats). I did think that maybe my cats would not be interested in them because my c-a-f-h cat didn't really care for them. However, one of my cats is not yet two years old, and I knew that she would take a liking to at least one of the games. Was I ever right about that!
     My youngest cat, Bella, loves the apps that have been made specifically for cats. Her favorite happens to be the one that my c-a-f-h cat didn't really get a kick out of: Fun and Games for Cats. The app has three activities for cats: PiCATso Paint App, Catch Games, and Cat Music App. Catch Games has four different critters to catch or chase: mouse, fish, spider, and butterfly. Bella likes the mouse the best because it squeaks as it scurries about the iPad screen. It's set to look like it's running off the screen and then on again. Watching Bella watch and then try to catch the mouse is truly entertaining. Especially amusing is watching her try to find the mouse behind or under my iPad. I have videotaped her several times. The video below is the latest.

 

     Other cat-apps I have are: Catch the Mouse, Game for Cats (this one has three catching games of mouse, butterfly, and laser dot), Kitty's Toys (balloons, birds, fish, Critter Bop, twinkly stars, and a bouncing ball), Cat Toys (mouse, rat, ping pong ball, frog, and spider), and Cat Toys Lite (the free version of Cat Toys has only the mouse). Bella likes the ping pong ball and spider in Cat Toys. 

     I've discovered that I cannot open my iPad if Bella is nearby. When I do, she looks imploringly at the iPad and expects me to turn it on and open up the mouse game so she can play. Tonight, for example, I turned on the iPad and opened up Words with Friends. Bella, sitting on top of my computer desk, immediately came over to me and looked, wide-eyed, at the screen. Determined to play my game, I told her she had to wait. Generally, cats wait for no one. I was persistent, and Bella finally conceded, patiently waiting for me to finish my game. Eventually, she got tired of waiting and left the room. Later, when she returns, I'll let her play the mouse game.

     Playing with the cats is truly a harmless addiction and a healthy one, as well. According to Life with Cats (http://www.lifewithcats.tv/2011/03/26/health-benefits-of-cat-ownership/), owning a cat can benefit humans in the following ways: reduced cardiovascular disease risk, lower cholesterol, reduced stroke risk, fewer trips to the doctor, and longer life spans. From experience, having cats around me helps me feel relaxed. When I'm not feeling well (sometimes that happens even though I have cats), a cat lying on me actually makes me feel better. I call Gypsy my feline heating pad, and her purring is simply therapeutic for both her and me.

     I have almost always had cats ever since I was a child. For a brief period in my life, I didn't have cats, and during that time I experienced a few health problems related to stress. In 1999, a friend of mine gave me a kitten, and that reignited my love of and for cats. I now have four cats, aged 13 (Moky), 12 (Gypsy), 5 (Stormy), and a little over a year and a half (Bella). I cherish every moment I have with them. I enjoy playing with them and watching them play with each other (I'm not too crazy about their fighting, which sometimes happens in a multi-cat household). Playing with the cats makes me laugh, and everyone knows that "laughter is the best medicine."

Blog-Surfing

     I just spent several hours surfing the Internet, primarily other bloggers' blogs. It started harmlessly enough when I went to my iGoogle news page to read the news from the various news outlets I put on there. I noticed that Wiccan Moonsong had a post about the blue moon that is filling the sky tonight. I clicked on the post, read it, and started on my annual blog-surfing journey.
      Just so you know, Wiccan Moonsong is not a news outlet. I put her blog on my iGoogle news page because that is where I always am when I get on the Internet. I added her blog to iGoogle without taking into consideration what section I was in. I'm glad I put that blog on that particular page because I have been reading her posts on a more regular basis.
     After I read WM's blue moon post, I clicked on Next Blog because I know that it will take me to a random blog, which is what I want to do. I'm not sure I can call blog-surfing a harmless addiction - or an addiction at all - because I don't do it all the time. It doesn't consume my life. I am hoping that having Wiccan Moonsong on my iGoogle page will spur more blog-surfing moments.
      Blog-surfing "guilts" me into writing in my blog, so maybe blog-surfing is helpful. Perhaps, it will get me into my blog more often. During my blog-surfing journey, I often come across blogs that have not been updated very often and some that have been abandoned. A few have moved (and I happily went to their new abodes). Blog-surfing is good because it is a form of reading. Maybe I will pass on that tidbit of advice to my students. Generally, most of them either hate to read or don't make the time to read. Many of them think that reading makes them sleepy. I tell them that they are probably already sleepy and that reading relaxes them so that they can sleep. Reading is a cure for mind-racing. I've discovered that prayer works the same way.
      I like stumbling onto the random blogs. A great deal of ordinary people write blogs. Myriad topics are covered. Tonight, I perused a lot of family blogs and looked at a lot of family photographs. I suppose that will eventually guilt me into posting family pics on my Facebook profile page. For now, however, those photos will remain in my camera until I get my work done.
      Blog-surfing, actually, leads to other activities I have put off for one reason or another. Unfortunately, blog-surfing helps me to procrastinate on getting my work done; I have one more syllabus to edit before my Sunday afternoon writing class begins. Fortunately, I'm almost done with it.
      I can honestly say that blog-surfing has become a hobby even if it is not necessarily a harmless addiction.