We have exorciiiiiiised the (kitty) demons!

Mia has been plagued by a demon recently. She has been spending the majority of the day in the bedroom and most times being under the bed in the bedroom. She might start in a lovey mood in the bedroom and I would carry her in to the living room and sit on the couch....then she would look around in a panic, jump off my lap and run hunching low to the ground, back to the bedroom. What on earth is wrong with Mia?

We started thinking about it and Mia was definitely not happy in the living room. What's new in the living room? Nothing really. Then tonight we thought about the toy Josh bought them while I was in the US. He bought a kitty toy consisting of a foot-long piece of feather boa that was hanging from a string on a pole. So waving it around it kind of looked like a bird or squirrel (the boa makes it look like a squirrel). Simply enough, right? All cats love feathery, fuzzy things tied to a pole, right? We've had "birders" before - two long, stiff feathers tied to a string on a pole and they loved it.

Well, when I got home from the US Josh said, "Hey, look. I bought them this toy but Mia acts really weird with it." So, he pulled it out of the desk drawer (which is in the living room) and Mia freezes. She watches it fly around, then hisses! And when he put it on the ground for her to approach she would hiss more and make this awful low growl!! She acted as if she wanted to absolutely kill it - and not in a I'm-a-cat-and-I-love-to-play-hunt kind of way.....I'm talking a this-is-the-most-wretched-thing-I-have-ever-seen-and-I-want-to-annihilate-it!

So, Wednesday night I theorized that she is avoiding the living room because she knows this thing is in the desk drawer (she was eyeing it down still in a fit when Josh put it away that day). I suggested we bring it out in the hall, (grab her from under the bed first!), show it to her then throw it in the guest room. We always keep our guest room door closed - the kitties are not allowed in there (so guests can rest in a cat allergy free and hair free environment).

Well, we did. We let her growl over it, bite it and hiss at it for about 10 minutes in the hall and then I took and with her eyeing me down suspiciously, I opened the guest room door and threw it in. She jumped as if to chase after it but I closed the door and we all left the hall.

It being Saturday morning now, I am glad to saw we have, in fact, exorcised that demon. Mia has been in the living non-stop, hanging out with us again like normal. I think we need to write a letter to that toy manufacturer - that was a scary incident! haha!