Our other boy, Max, has always been the smart one — the kind of kitty that you look at and know that he is really an old spirit trapped in a fuzzy kitty body. He started doing “dog-like” things on his own when he was very young: playing fetch, jumping up in the air to catch items I threw, retrieving mail. He can do a series of tricks: sit, stand, down, stay, and listens and responds very easily to commands. When I say hello to Max, he always responds with a meow.
Rufus is the opposite. To put it nicely, he’s our sweet and cuddly cat — the one that always wants to snuggle, the one that always needs and wants a hug, the softest little bunny bear marshmallow of a cat ever. Unlike his older brother, he has been impossible to train due to a massive case of ADD. He cannot focus on anything for very long unless it’s food, in which case he is so obsessed he can’t think of anything else.
Imagine my surprise when Rufus approached me with his favorite stuffed mouse and dropped it in my lap. I tossed it thinking he would soon lose focus and find something else to play with, but instead he returned with his toy. I tried it again. Again he returned. I threw it several more times, and each time he came back with the mouse. We played fetch like this for nearly an hour until a jealous Max came by and took his toy from him.
Rufus pretty much does whatever the two older kitties do, so I’m wondering if fetching was something he learned from Max, or if this is something he just naturally did on his own. Maybe Rufus has been holding out on us…
