Apricot, the Braided Rug Bed, and His Favorite Toys

August 7, 2014 Thursday

I got two braided rug beds for the cats last Saturday. Of course Apricot is still an only cat, so right now they're both his if he wanted.

One of them I put by my chair in the living room. Apricot avoided it other than the occasional sniff. The lady I got the beds from said that sometimes cats who have had to fend for themselves don't like the tall sides, and I could flip it over and push the middle down to make a bed with lower sides and see if he liked that.

All comfy now

Yes, much better. This way the bed got investigated quite thoroughly and then sat in. Repeatedly.

Only I noticed as he got used to this one, he started checking out the other one more. I'd left it intact in the bedroom. And then I noticed he was actually in the other one. As you can see, with the edges flipped over, the bed is smaller and things stick out of bed all night. Well, at least his head and his tail don't fit and he looks awkward.

Since he was in the other one for a short time, he was obviously getting okay with the tall sides concept. So I flipped the one in the living room back to the way it's supposed to be. I could always turn it around again if he didn't like it.

I needn't have worried. He liked it.

The Thinker
(actually he was in the middle of washing his face)

That is what it looks like with him in it when it's up properly. The truly funny thing is, he's on top of two toys.

He has two favorite toys, both given to him by other people. I gotta wonder about my ability to choose cat toys! But anyway, one of his favorite toys is the squeaker mouse. Last night there had been a wood chipper at the house across the street, and it was very loud and very annoying for a very long time, and both Apricot and I were on edge because of it, and neither of us handled it well. 

We were kind of snapping at each other, metaphorically speaking (yes, on his part too). I was feeling a bit on the snippy side, so I tossed his mouse into the braided rug bed so he'd have to fish it out.

Today when I came home from work I found he'd gone one better. He'd gotten his other favorite toy, the rattle mouse Mrs. McFadden gave me for him, and put it in with the squeaker mouse.

Showing off his toy collection

Well, now I'm wondering if I should leave them in there and wait for him to get them out, or wait for a certain length of time and get them out. Perhaps I will collect all the toys in the rug bed when I vacuum on Saturday and then redistribute them all throughout the living room, and that way it won't look like I'm picking on certain toys in particular!