Sunday, January 18, 2009

18. The Purple Peril



I believe I've mentioned how much the Infanta is fascinated by the cats? In case I haven't, she's completely enraptured by them. When she sees them, she goes completely still, and, wearing a huge smile, makes small noises which I think are supposed to be enticing. Since the cats want nothing to do with her, this tactic doesn't work, but it's adorable nonetheless. If they're anywhere vaguely in reach, she tries to grab, and has been known to actually catch a limb, a tail, or a handful of fur. This has been happening more often recently, as the Infanta becomes mobile faster than the cats can process it. (We do sometimes carefully guide her in softly stroking a captive feline, but I think she's really too young yet to grasp the concept.)

Her recent strides (if you will) in mobility have been significantly motivated by her desire to play with the kitties, and in the last day or so, as she begins to be able to articulate knee movement in her crawling, she's taken to pursuing them to their highest refuge in the living room: the top of the comfy chair. In fact, just before I sat down to write this, she'd managed to trap both the kitties there!

Being somewhat callous pet owners (we love our cats, but we don't coddle them), we naturally encourage our daughter's efforts to pursue the frisky felines, and pretty much only intervene when she manages to catch one. After all, we don't condone actual torture... much as we enjoy messing with them.

2 comments:

chanceofbooks said...

Just wait until she takes to lying on top of the cats . . .

caramama said...

Very cute! It's important to have motivation, eh?

My toddler has always loved the cat, but he does not appear to return that love. Usually, she leaves him alone at this point. However, when she does want to pet him or get close to him, she simply does not yet understand that she should move slow and speak softly. She yells and lurches towards him. He freaks out and bolts. Oh well!