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The Mighty Mousefish

Scout had a toy I called the MouseFish. It was a stuffed mouse tied to a string that winds its way through a short plastic fishing rod. The idea was that you cast the mouse across the room and reeled it in, giving the cat something to hunt and chase.

Scout loved this toy as it was excellent superhero cat training for her day job as Scout the Wonder Cat. She’d wait until the Mousefish was within striking distance, pounce, then smother the Mousefish in a death roll while batting it with her hind paws. But, alas, as with all arch-villians of super heroes, the Mousefish always lived to fight another day. Scout would watch it wiggle away with deep understanding that the Mousefish would be back and she would be waiting.

But one day, Scout started acting as if the Mousefish were made of Kitty Kryptonite. I’d bring the Mousefish out of its lair and Scout would dart for her hideout (a.k.a. under my bed). She’d watch from afar with great concern as the Mousefish scurried rampantly about her apartment, taunting her with with its carefree liberty.

This change in behavior worried me. So I consulted Dave, my apartment manager and resident cat psychic. (If the cats in my apartment building were X-Men, Dave would be Professor X.) “If a cat gets to the point,” Dave explained, “where she sees so natural enemies in her environment, she’ll invent some.”

So my cat is paranoid? What next? Will her food bowl suddenly become possessed by evil spirits and start telling her to tap-dance around the toilet seat? Silly, silly cat.

But then is Scout so different from most of us? Aren’t a lot of people conditioned to look for problems where there are none? The guy you’re seeing cancels a date…he’s seeing someone else. Two managers at work were having a heated discussion in a conference room…there must be layoffs this week. Sometimes these fears are real…and sometimes they are just fears.

Scout came to terms with her inner demons regarding the Mousefish. She went back to combating her old enemy with joy and complete abandon. She conquered her doubts and faced her fears. Good brave kitty.

Oddly though, now she’s afraid of the bathtub drain.