The Toy Box

Our cats love to play. The images featured above were taken of Buddy only a couple of days after he arrived as a rescue all the way from Plovdiv in Bulgaria. He didn’t have a great start in life as a kitten living alone on the streets. Someone had damaged his tail as a baby, but when he was found later with part of one ear badly burnt, he was offered for adoption by a wonderful rescuer who was to become a very dear friend. My heart went out to the little scrap and arrangements were made to have him picked up and transported to Sofia, where he lived in a vet clinic until his injuries had healed. He then spent a couple of weeks with my friend until we could get him on the next available transport to the UK.

We collected him from a cattery in Essex after the required two day stay and brought him home where he was immediately welcomed by our other Eastern European rescues. It’s amazing how they bond so quickly. All seven will eat, sleep and play together and yet they came from five different rescuers. They are the most loving cats I have ever known and it’s not unusual to have five or six of them piled on the bed with us at night.

In the morning, the routine is always the same. I go upstairs to their play den and turn on all their battery operated toys. They flood in after me and will play happily until the timers run out. If they are still full of energy, then their next port of call is the huge toy box situated just outside their little attic room. It’s an old plastic storage box filled with all their smaller toys – catnip mice that chirp when thrown, Boinks, balls, Kickeroos and so on. They love jumping in and rummaging around for their favourites. I was lucky enough to catch DeeDee in the act the other day and took this short video.

https://www.facebook.com/lesley.a.jones.37/videos/10209031219914449/

About the Author:

Zooey lives on a smallholding in Sussex with her husband, ten cats and many other assorted animals. In her spare time she is a keen photographer and has her own blog Elements https://myelementsblog.com

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19 thoughts on “The Toy Box

    • Zooey says:

      That’s kind of you Sam and thank you for the follow as well. The heart-warming nature of the stories are all down to the rescuers who work in the most appalling conditions. I’m lucky to call some of them my friends 🙂

    • Marc-André says:

      Thank you Sunshinebright! 🙂

      Though this is not one of my stories for a change. 😉

      Zooey is one of our newest authors and you’ll be seeing more from her and her kitties. 😀

        • Marc-André says:

          Haha don’t worry. 😀

          It’s happened to me before as well! And trust me we won’t be the last doing that at times. I wish my theme showed author images above the actual post but I’ve only seen that on self hosted blog themes. :X

          • Sunshinebright says:

            After commenting back and forth with you today, I got ambitious. Got together all the washable toys, and put them into one of those net bags, and put them through the washer and dryer. Good job. Found a plastic shoe storage box in the closet et voila! New toy box. 🙂 Their curiosity was getting the best of them when I got them into the master bathroom for the night. I think it will work out well. I’ll know when I open the door and say, “Good morning, babies.” Hopefully, I will see some toys on the floor.

  1. The Road to Joy says:

    Zooey, I love tiny Buddy, playing his little heart out with his toys, thanks to YOUR generous heart. Can’t imagine 10 cats on the bed! Don’t they wake you up, pouncing on your feet with their tiny needly paws?! DeeDee looks a little disgruntled at first, as if she’s thinking, “Hey, now who moved my little stuffed pal?” It looked like she even picked up a similar-looking one before finding the one she wanted. They must be hours of constant entertainment for you–thank you for sharing them!

    • Zooey says:

      It’s funny you should ask about our sleeping arrangements. I’ve been awake since it started to get light. The cats sense this and even more pile on. I wound up hanging off my side of the bed with Merlin at the bottom, Bijou half way up, Buddy curled over my stomach and Gremlin tucked up into my chest. I can only doze for short periods, but it’s worth it to keep them happy. Did you know that when they do this they are reverting to kittens? When their mothers had to leave the nest to hunt, kittens would curl up together to keep warm. When they are tiny they can lose heat rapidly. I’m glad that by simply letting them “clump” with us on our bed, we can bring back such innocent memories. I’m glad we are able to share them with you 🙂

  2. Clare Hemington says:

    This is lovely Zooey! Here’s another idea for the toy box that I recommend to my clients: If you sprinkle loose dried catnip and valerian in the bottom of the box then keep it covered and bring the out toys randomly, they’ll stay novel and interesting for your feline gang! Dried catnip can be bought from most pet shops and online and I use dried Valerian from the Dr Stuarts valerian teabags you get at the Supermarket. Kind regards Clare.

    • Zooey says:

      Oh yes – we know all about those. There is a box of catnip in the kitchen cupboard, but we have to use it sparingly. Visualise ten cats all rolling around on the floor at the same time. They used to have a valerian “Prawnz”, but he was loved so much we had to throw him out after three days. The cats loved it, but it stank to high heaven… 😀

  3. Diana says:

    Love, love it! Love the story and the video! What a great capture how she rummaged thru the toy box to get just the right toy! So cute! 🙂

  4. Zooey says:

    I wish toys were restricted to the feline variety. We have cats that will run off with keys, credit cards and we even had one who would steal my earrings and hide them in my slippers! 😀

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