“Oozes over the sides of the box…” That describes it perfectly!
You need a shoe box from a child-size pair of shoes. The really small-sized box. If you don’t have kids, ask a friend with small children to give you the box from the next pair of shoes they buy their kids. It’s hysterical to watch a cat try to fit their big furry self into such a small box. They know it’s a shoe box, but can’t figure out why it’s so small. They’ll give you a really dirty look as if to say, “What the hell is wrong with this damn box?!?”
My inlaws have an ex-barncat who, despite being a big puffball with no front claws, is still a wicked mouser. The last time I tried this game with her, I made the mistake of putting my face too close to the hole, and <POW> got a very fast and well-aimed pawpunch in the eye. Not quite hard enough to bruise, but hard enough to hurt a lot.
The same kitty had an ear infection which also caused the eye on that side to weep a bit. Treatment involved eardrops, which she hated, and even when she was feeling better the sight of the eyedropper would cause her to put both ears down flat on the sides of her head and close the one eye. At which point we would all point at her and go “Pirate kitty! Yarrrr!”. Hours of fun.
Ok this might sound mean.
My cat has some vision problems, and he does a little Stevie Wonder sway thing with his head. So when he is on the kitchen counter, I stand next to the trashcan and open my arms. He tries to jump at me, but always misses to the right and lands in the trashcan.
Then I apologize with a pounce purrfection (his favorite) and some quality throat stroaking (his favorite). He’s a good sport about it all, cuz he always makes that jump for me. It brightens my day.
My kitty’s favorite recreation is climbing into an empty pillow case and being swung around the room. She loves this!
She purrs loudly. The faster she is swung, the louder she purrs.
And I always say, “wadda ya know - there is room to swing a cat in here!”.
I turn my cat’s ears to the side, and say, “Look, it’s Yoda! ‘Purr or purr not, there is no try.’”
Hey, Mr. Amanita thinks it’s funny!
Not at all. Rex obviously had it coming; my cat was dumped in against her will and blasted with water.
Anyway, at least Rex was gentlemanly (gentlecatly?) enough not to seek egress by climbing up your leg. We have a friend who used to let his cat sit on the tub while he took a bath, until the cat fell in and then gouged great divots out of his flesh trying to get back out.
to make my cats snap their ears back, i have but to enter the room, i get the distinct impression they dont like me…
My kitty-tormenting trick: When he yawns, I put my finger in his mouth — not pointing down his throat, but perpendicular, not touching, so when he’s done yawning he closes his mouth on my finger.
He goes like this: squint — yaaaaawwwWWWWgggGGRRKK — GLARE
I’ve had BFs that do that. I go like this: CHOMP! (giggle, point at new amputee)
I really, really hate that trick.
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You might want to have him checked for ear mites
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I had a kitty, Forbes, who was so non wicked he once cornered a mouse when I got there, Forbes was furiously bathing the poor mouse. I’m sure Mr. Mouse was close to heart failure. We released him in a field.
I found out about kitty memory the hard way. There was a neighborhood cat we called Mittens because of the thumbs she had. Anyway, one day me and my roommate decided to see if putting duct tape on all four paws was or was not the funniest thing ever. Turns out it was.
But then a month or so later I was scratching Mittens’ tummy while she laid on her back, and… Well, I think you know what happened. Four puncture wounds and a seiously bruised hand. No duct tape for the MonkeyBoy since then.
Oh, I do the wheelbarrow trick with the current feline homeowner.