(A picture of Mr Midnight waiting for Sir Winston to sort himself out)
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When nobody´s looking, Sir Winston often sneeks behind the comfy chair which stands infront of the large window in the living-room and playfully, uses his paws to “flick-out” some of the small ball-like objects (which are actually earth substitute called “Seramis”) out of the plant-pots. I don´t mind because at the same time, he´s inadvertently helping to do the dusting underneath the sofa. 🙂
He loves flicking the balls back and forth and because his “play-area” is obviously not large enough, he often loses most of them underneath the furniture.
He was having one of those moments again.
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Hey, Mr Midnight, try and stop this if you can!
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Sir Winston flicked his left paw and the “Seramis” ball sped towards Mr Midnight.
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Not a bad shot Sir Winston. You´re nearly as good as the English football team. You should aim to be more like the German football team though – the Germans usually win at football. 🙂 Next time, try and line it up better. I wouldn´t have to stretch myself so much if you managed to occasionally, shoot on target. I nearly did myself an injury just then.
It´s only a bit of fun Mr Midnight. You don´t have to do acrobatics all the time. Just let the thing roll where it wants to and flick it back to me. By the way, you know that I don´t like football – I´m more of a rugby cat than a football cat.
I´ve already noticed Sir Winston. That´s why your “shots” usually curve in the wrong direction!
Playing with daddy´s plant earth is a real barrel of laughs Sir Winston. Honestly, little things amuse little minds. 🙂
Well I enjoy it. It´s a pity I can´t find half of them again afterwards though. I think daddy removes them with that noisy, sucking machine. You know, the thing which supposedly, cleans our house.
I´m not too keen on that machine thingy either Sir Winston. Most of the time it makes my fur stand up on end. It gives me the creeps.
Come on. let´s have one last try. See if you can get a paw on this!
I will if you shoot properly!
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Sir Winston lined the Seramis ball up as best he could and with a swift, flick of the right paw, he shot the ball with all of his expertise.
The ball didn´t go any where near Mr Midnight. Instead, it veered sharply to the left and rolled under the heavy, lime green sofa.
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What are you playing at? I´m getting hungry. I haven´t got all day you know – there´s other things to do; such as eating, having a wash and getting some shut-eye.
I missed. I tried to put some back-spin on it and the thing just shot off at a completely different trajectory than I was hoping for.
I can see that. Now go and get it and lets have enough of this nonsense. Who´s ever heard of a cat playing about with “Seramis”? If this ever gets out, it could ruin my reputation.
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Time passed.
Mr Midnight eventually joined Sir Winston who was helplessly, still trying to get the ball out from under the sofa.
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I think it´s a gonna.
It´s an infurrriating little game Sir Winston. If we lose anymore balls, daddy´s going to crown us – and I don´t mean he´s going to worship us like the ancient Egyptians used to.
I can´t get my paw behind it. It´s rolled too far.
Well you “put” it there, so you can get it out.
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Sir Winston spent ages trying to get his ball out from under the sofa. After having used all avenues of possibility open to him (viewing from every angle; using one paw, then both paws; using part of a leaf as leverage) he finally gave up.
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It´s no good, I´ve had it. It won´t budge a wink. In fact, I can´t even get to the bloomin thing, never mind budge it.
I wish you´d hurry up. It´s getting towards lunch time. This morning, daddy bought some of that gourmet food from the delicatessen. I like the word “delicatessen” because the word “cat” sits in the middle of it and “essen” means “to eat”, in the language which they speak around here in the Black Forest. Great stuff. 🙂
As long as the people round here don´t start eating us cats! Never mind your stomach Mr Midnight, you can look after your tummy later. What am I suppossed to do about the “ball”? I feel like giving up. It´s too hard.
If things were always easy, life wouldn´t be much fun now would it Sir Winston. Don´t give up. There must be a solution.
I think you need more purrrsevereance. You know, that stuff which keeps you going in adverse circumstances and hopefully, in a cheery counternance if possible.
I´ve heard about that stuff. It´s not really one of my strong points.
Come on Sir Winston. Where´s all your ambition, your determination and strength of resolve?
Now let me tell you something for a change.
The secret to purrrsevering is to understand the “learning curve”, which is a graph which rises, then drops a little and rises again in a continuous succession of “rising and dipping”. All will be going well; then suddenly ones seems to regress and lose some of the advantage one had previously made. This is the point where most animals (and virtually all humans) will give up. If they only carried on with their efforts they would find out that each dip is followed by a higher rise, thus creating the overall pattern of “upwards and onwards”
Ah ha; you mean Per ardua ad astra, as is written in Latin.
I´m not so sure about that Sir Winston, what with Latin not being one of my strong points.
The purrr bit of purrr ardua ad astra sounds quite comforting though.
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Sir Winston was now positively motivated by Mr Midnights wise words.
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Thanks for the advice Mr Midnight. I´ll have another go.
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Again, Sir Winston spent ages trying to fathom out how to get the ball out from under the sofa. He stretched as far as he could; he used all four paws as best he could – and he was still unable to get to it.
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I´m not getting anywhere. What a stupid ball. Why do they make them so that they roll so easily. It´s all a waste of time.
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Sir Winston was now starting to show signs of frustration and in an annoyed manner, he pulled himself out from underneath the sofa and swung himself quickly round so as to face Mr Midnight who sat opposite. With wide eyes of bewildement, they both watched the ball roll out from underneath the sofa, as if by magic.
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Thank goodness for that. I don´t know how you worked it out but as you can see – determination and purrrseverance work wonders. I knew I could count on you and you´d get there in the end.
In such situations I often think of the line which daddy told me he had “drilled into him” when at school.
“If at first you don´t succeed, try, try again”. A great motto and one that cats can also use. 🙂
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Sir Winston was rather astonished because he knew he hadn´t done anything. He hadn´t worked it out. He wasn´t going to tell Mr Midnight though. He thought “let him believe I mastered it. He´s starting to get too big for his shoes – although he doesn´t wear any shoes”.
Because Sir Winston had swiftly turned to face Mr Midnight, his tail had managed to sweep the ball in full swing, clearly hitting the ball outwards from underneath the sofa.
He knew that he had had a lot of luck but he had also learnt to not give up so easily in the future.
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Well done Sir Winston. You really are a superstar. Now lets get some grub inside us. I´m famished.
(C) mags 2013
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