Apricot Joins Bedtime Playtime

The nightly routine has developed into the following: I announce we are going to bed and get my bedtime snack, which doesn't take long. Then I walk into the pink bedroom, preceded by and followed by very excited kittens. This is because then I sit in the middle of the room and play with them with a wand toy, running them round and round and back and forth. Apricot recently (like a week or two ago) started coming in and watching this from the sidelines.

Sometimes he ended up retreating back into the hallway, and watching from there, though, because despite my best efforts to keep Colby from running into him, sometimes Colby launches at the toy and overshoots and, while turning, skids into whatever he was originally headed for. Sometimes it's the furniture, but sometimes it was Apricot, who was rather not prepared to have seven pounds (and some) of kitten bowl into him.

Thimble is rather less heedless of his surroundings and slower in his attacks, but even so he was the one who tumbled into Apricot a time or two as well. But despite this, each night Apricot would come along with the three of us and watch from the sidelines.

On the rare occasion that both kittens were taking a short break, I'd run the toy over to Apricot, who would sniff it cautiously.

Thimble and Colby do share the wand toy; one will wait while the other plays. I move the toy back and forth between them, as they indicate they want to slow down and let the other one play. This is usually less than 30 seconds per cat, and requires me to pay attention to their body language, but we're all getting good at it. Often the resting kitten will sit on my legs while watching the other one play, because it's a safe place that doesn't get hurtled into (Apricot hadn't figured that one out, or perhaps he'd observed that the lap was often occupied by a kitten anyway).

Apricot's cautious sniffing of the toy did not count as playing with it, and the kittens wouldn't let him be and would go after the toy, and I'd have to hastily pull it away (and sometimes fail and have a collision occur).

Last night all his careful observations came together, and Apricot tried playing with it the second it arrived in front of him.

Sure enough, both Thimble and Colby held back, allowing him his 30 seconds of playtime before the toy moved on to one of them. I was using the rabbit-on-a-stick wand toy, and Apricot likes that one much better than the furry one with a bell that I often use for the kittens.

So playtime involved all three kitties last night, and it was really quite fun to see them all taking turns and being patient like that.

Now after they are "done" (a time limit determined by me and my arm strength, usually), I put the toy away. The bell toy is in the bookshelf in their room (I may have to move it once they get big enough to get at it), but the rabbit toy is on the big bookshelves in the living room, so with that I have to wrap it up in my hand to "put it away."

Then I kiss the kittens both good night, turn out the light, and Apricot and I leave the room and I shut the door behind us. To my amazement, this actually works. The two stay in the room and don't rush out with us, and Apricot does come out with me without my having to pick him up or anything. I still, each night, expect this to not work as smoothly as it does, and each night it's been working just fine.

(An odd thing happens when I write something like that on the blog--the next time the incident I wrote about occurs, it works quite the opposite way. So we'll see if I jinxed tonight's playtime wrap-up!)

After that, I go out into the living room with Apricot and I get out a grownup wand toy or his ribbon and play with just the two of us for a little while. With the rabbit-on-a-stick, since I had it in my hand anyway and he'd been having fun with it already, I used that last night. He was much appreciative of being able to play exclusively with it and take the time he needed to sniff it and race after it without interfering kittens underfoot.

Then I put the toy away and finish getting myself ready for bed, and last thing before I go to bed I kiss Apricot goodnight. He's been doing more and more hanging out in the bedroom with me while I'm getting ready (changing clothes and whatnot) and fairly consistently he's been coming up on the bed after everything (including his good night kiss and my light going out), and walking up to my head where I'm under the covers, and then walking away again and getting himself a snack back on the floor where his food dish is (I hear the crunching of the food).

I'm not sure ... is he confirming that yes, I'm in bed, so everything's "done" for the day? I don't respond to his presence because I'm not sure what would scare him or not. Perhaps one day he'll curl up and stay.