Toy Eating Cat

by A.
(Waltham, MA)

The first thing my cat Zip does with a new fur mouse is eat the tail. He also tries to eat pickles, cardboard and microfiber fleece, so the toy-eating could have something to do with his being insane. But I think he just doesn't understand that the mice are fake.

Zip's way of playing with a fur mouse is to grab it, run to the back of the apartment and crouch protectively over his prey like a lion with a zebra carcass. He even used to growl at his sister Echo if she dared to come near it. I guess that eating the prey quickly is his new way to defend it, because a mousie becomes just another toy to him once the tail is gone.

P.S. It's not only the tails anymore. Today I found a bright-blue object on my bedroom floor that turned out to be a disembodied mousie butt. I'm kind of impressed, but the vet is concerned, so from now on Zip will have to hone his killer instincts with jingly balls.