The Puzzle Box

I got the kittens (and Apricot if he wants it) a puzzle box. This is a wooden box with holes in it, and you put toys inside the box, or treats (haven't done this yet) and the cats have to fish the toys out.

This was a big hit with both kittens.

As usual, Colby is my model.

His foot just fits.

Although I have Colby in the pictures, it's actually Thimble who likes the box the best. This was a surprise to me because usually Colby's my puzzler cat.

Colby has great fun sitting on the box with his paws down in it, like the picture above, without actually hunting for anything. Colby also has great fun fishing toys out of the box.

But I saw Thimble take a favored toy over to the box, drop it in deliberately, and then fish it back out again. That's taking the puzzle box to a new level! (And of course, I wasn't randomly filming, so I don't have any evidence.)

The video is the first time they've seen the puzzle box. The two solid sponge balls come with the box. They are easily extracted, and serve as a teaching toy. I've put more challenging toys in since (some of them have stayed ...)

The thing is, the balls are light and bat around quite easily, and so the balls have become favorite toys too, of all three cats. So favorite are these toys that one has completely vanished and the other only sporadically shows up. I've ordered more. Apricot loves them, and anything to get my chubby cat to move is helpful.

One of the balls showed up the other day after my bath, so once I had wiped down the tub and it had gotten two very interested kittens in it (they like the faucet drip), I tossed the ball in, as well. This was a big hit. They discovered they could bat it around and it would roll up the sides and then back to them. I left them playing with it in the tub while I made myself supper.

When I went back in, Colby was still in the tub, fascinated by the drip, and Thimble was outside the tub, apparently playing with the shower curtain (also outside the tub in order to dry better). He knows he's not supposed to play with the curtain, but just like the nest of wires behind my computer desk, he's discovered that if he takes a toy there, he can protest that he wasn't playing with the forbidden thing, just the toy.

Thus I knew to lift up the shower curtain and check, and sure enough, there was the ball. Thimble had managed to get it in his mouth for long enough to get it out of the tub.

I haven't seen it yet today ... the ball, I mean. I'm sure it will show up, but the two of them have been chomping on cardboard in the kitchen while I write this. (Puncturing the cardboard boxes that will eventually be recycled is an allowed, and encouraged, activity. They've got to do something to alleviate the teething pain.)