Of course Hawk's tired!

Of course Hawk's tired!, originally uploaded by emu82.

I came home to a sleepy pair of kittens today. It's no wonder since they were up all night!

I have no proof of this other than what I saw with my own eyes and the incredible amount of noise I heard between midnight and 5am. Last night, around 2am I witnessed Bandit and Hawk PLAYING in the hallway. I didn’t think Hawk knew how to play and maybe he didn’t, but our little Bandit cat taught him the awesomeness of a sock without a mate.

Bandit has always lived up to her name as we have multiple socks that are missing mates thanks to her. In fact we current have 4 or 5 in her cat toy cave that she acquired at the last place we lived that were moved with us. Come to think of it, I should give those back to their owners... Anyhow, she drug one of these stolen treasures out last night and I caught her and Hawk batting it around down the hallway- up and down and back and forth. They were jumping around like little kangaroos! Bandit even tricked Hawk into jumping on the bed (TWICE), but both times he realized that was not something he was ready for and promptly jumped down.

I really do need to start keeping my camera next to my bed so I can snap photos (or if I'm lucky, a video) of them in their midnight prowls, but most of the time it’s just black blurs I see zooming down the hallway and up the stairs.

Hawk apparently wasn’t done playing with the sock around the time I got up around 5am because I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup and in the mirror I see this tiny Pink Panther looking head peeking around the door, eying the sock that was laying in the hall. Naturally I was so shocked that he was out and about while I was around that turned around to look at him and that's when we both panicked. Hawk still is not a fan of being spoken directly to- most times we think it's Bandit and say hello only to realize it's Hawk by the astonishing speed in which he can get from the window to the underside of the bed. My brave little Hawk was probably thinking “Oh shoot I didn’t know she was up," and me, in my panic was thinking “WHY DID YOU TURN AROUND!? YOU'RE STANDING IN FRONT OF A MIRROR! LOOK AWAY! LOOK AWAY!!” So, in a more awkward moment, we sat for a good 30 seconds staring at each other until I whispered “Sorry Hawk, but good morning” and he backed out of the doorway and back under the bed.

There are a few times in my life where I wish I could record and play back for people what my mind's eye saw, and this was one of the times. I haven't been that awkward since high school.

I was telling Jer this morning about the rules of the Hawk/Bandit chase-me chase-me game and it appears that forward women frighten and confuse him. Hawk seems to be old fashioned in the idea of courtship and how “the game” should go. He really seems to enjoy chasing Bandit around, but when she turns the tables and goes to chase him he turns tail and hisses and runs back under the bed. Poor Hawk, Bandit is just too progressive for him. So Jer and I figured out that we have a reverse Pepe Le Pew situation in our house: we have a little girl cat who is very smitten with a little boy cat who is seemingly terrified of her. Unfortunately Hawk is going to have to get over it because Bandit doesn’t seem like she is going to learn how to play hard to get.

So even with Bandit’s scary girl tactics, she’s taught little Hawk to play which is pretty amazing to me since there was that one time that Jer rolled a ball at Hawk and you would’ve thought Jer was throwing daggers at him. I guess Bandit has found her niche in teaching Hawk what he should have learned a long time ago. Fingers crossed her crazy doesn’t wear off on him.