There is No Pope and Bears are Hibernating…

…so how is Obi supposed to say that yes, he does want his belly rubbed?

Sure, the next Pope will be Catholic. Sure, bears, in general, do pee in the woods. But what about right now? What smart alecky comment can he come back with right now?

***

When The Boy is downstairs for a long time, Obi will go down and tell him about the great boredom. The problem is that The Boy and Obi have this great fetching game…upstairs. And that is what Obi wants to play. They go up to the belly rubbing rug and find the flat mousie. He’s usually under the couch. The Boy will throw the mousie into the hallway and Obi will go and get it. He brings it back to the rug (sometimes the mousie puts up a fight and it takes a while) and The Boy will throw it again. It’s not exactly “fetch” so much as a deeply held belief by the brown kitten that mousies belong on the rug.

Almost all of his toys are in the living room, near the rug.

Last night, The Boy decided that Obi needed a basement mousie. We happen to have two flat mousies so he chose the other one – not Obi’s favorite mousie in all the world – for the basement relegation. He threw the mousie from the rug, into the hall, and Obi chased it. The Boy got it from Obi before he got back to the rug and threw the mousie into the kitchen. From there he threw it down the stairs. From there he threw it down the downstairs hallway. Thinking he had made it, he threw the mousie the length of the train layout and waited for Obi to bring it back to him.

Obi brought it back…

To the rug in the living room.

Mousies belong on the belly rubbing rug.

The Boy took the mousie back downstairs with him and it has remained downstairs for 24 hours. We’ll see what happens the first time they play with it.