The Cat Behind the Ball....

Our Resident "Spook"

It was a dark and gloomy day....I was doing dishes listening to the silence.  


I distinctly heard a ball being dropped and rolling on the floor coming from upstairs.  I told my self it was just a cat playing with a ball.  
There are two problems behind this scenario, #1 I am not aware of any ball that we have that is upstairs.  #2.  Upon completion of the thought of it being a cat, I did a kitty head count.  They were all present in the kitchen....presumably documenting my work for the day.  


I shrugged it off and moved onto dusting.  Again, with the ball upstairs while I dust.  Alright....this time I see no cats present.  Dusting is boring to cats.  


I shrugged that off and moved onto sweeping and mopping.  Cats love sweeping and mopping and all were in attendance. ....I hear THUNK....roll, roll, roll from upstairs.  (At least it wasn't furniture being moved like in the books.)  With a big sigh I lay down the broom ~ where it is promptly attacked by Mooshie.  I slowly tread up the stairs.  Yes, just like the idiots we yell at in the movies.  I sneaked up my own staircase.   I peered over the top of the landing.  I hear nothing, I see nothing.  (Of course not)  This gives me the courage to move onward...Up the rest of the stairs.  Thunk, roll, roll, roll....a ball rolls down the hallway towards me.  A small, blue, plastic ball.  I do not remember this ball at all.  Seriously?  Next the wall paper moves right?  Do I turn around and go down the stairs?  No, I stand there.  I stand there looking at the ball and look at each closed door and wonder what is around the corner that is out of my site.  I also do not step forward.  I am internally debating going forward, or going back.  Do I pick up the ball?  Do I leave it there?  If I roll it back and it comes back to me, what is my course of action?  Do I play ball with the evil demon that apparently lives upstairs in my house?  What I did do:  I prayed of course.  Then, I picked up the ball and rolled it back towards the end of the hall way, crouching down while I did so....nothing.  The ball sat quietly against the wall it had hit.  Sitting there...being a blue ball.  I rolled my eyes and chastised myself for finding such a lame excuse to stop sweeping.  I turn away from the ball  to go back down the stairs I hear...skitter, skitter, roll, roll, roll. The ball hit the back of my foot, and in the shadows at the end of the hall I think I see a black shape.  I do a quick cat inventory.  White Mooshie is accounted for, sitting on the stairs nonchalantly, grey and white Pinky taking a bath at the bottom of the stair case.  That leaves Spook...hmm, where is Spooky?  
With a quick prayer, I again roll the ball, this time aiming for the shadowed corner.  Skitter, skitter, shuffle, Pounce!  Spook darts from the corner, expertly bats the ball in my direction, and quickly hides behind the corner again!  Not a hair to be seen.  I actually laughed out loud.  Mystery solved. 
After a few more rounds of skitter, pounce, hide, I went back to sweeping.

---

Spooky the big ham that enjoys a game of skitter, pounce, hide!

I know, I said all cats were in attendance earlier right?  They were at the time of kitty head count.  Perhaps the wind caught the light blue ball and it rolled in the wind, thus enticing Spook to go up and investigate the sound.  Maybe when I did the head count she was there, but when I turned back to dishes she quietly went upstairs to play ball.  Cats are sneaky, who knows how it happened.  I just know that when I actually did investigate I found Spooky and the blue ball and I am leaving it at that!