My day yesterday was wonderful and also a little frightening. For some reason the woman monkey didn’t make a big noise and go away in the morning. She went around the little building we all live in, putting things away and generally making it look much less interesting, with fewer things to scatter or knock over.
Eventually, she settled down on the couch with a little flat computer. I know about those from my brief career as a Web celebrity, you see.
A monkey man’s voice chattered senselessly on and on; it was coming out of the big loud-box but there were no pictures of moving monkeys on the front of it. Weird. Occasionally she chattered back to the loud-box, as if the senseless man-monkey was in there or something. She did not chatter in the special warm tone she and the fuzzy one reserve for “talking” to me.
Anyway, that got boring after a while, so I curled up next to her and was petted and occasionally held while she drank some stuff that she made with hot water. It didn’t smell good, but that’s monkeys for you - they’re inscrutable sometimes.
It’s hard to describe things when you’re completely happy and contented. Somehow it’s easier to describe horrible scary things. So just take it as read that I’m indescribably happy.
My monkeylady then played a new game with me, which I’m going to call “STRING!! ATTACK!!1!!” which was very enjoyable. Basically, she walks around with a long piece of string trailing after her, and I stalk and chase and kill it over and over. Sometimes the string goes very fast so I ran and caught up with it. This activity was somewhat tiring but I went very fast anyway, which seemed to make my monkeylady happy. She encouraged me in this activity until finally I signalled that it was concluded by plopping down and sneezing.
Not long after that, 2 more monkey ladies came in the door! I ran so fast and hid behind the “sofa” in the “living room.” I thought they were caremonkeys, come to take me back to prison, or to some other jail.
I peeked warily at them. “o nononono!” I thought. “you’ll never take me alive, monkeys!”
However, after a bit of soft chatter with the one I think of as “MY” monkey, they all went to different parts of the little building and started doing things. It sounded and smelled like when my old cell used to be cleaned.
I came out of my refuge and dared one of them to try and capture me, but “my” monkey just laughed at me and picked me up and petted me. So it was a false alarm. Ho, hum, I went back and napped for a while and tried to ignore the horrible rumpus that was going on all over.
Then the two new monkeyladies left, and it was just my own monkey and me. More cuddling and petting. I felt much, much better. Then we played Sock and “STRING!!1!” some more and I felt even better.
The fuzzy one got home and we all had our dinners - mine is served in attractive bowls, much nicer than I’ve ever had. I must try not to knock them over.
More petting ensued. The fuzzy one likes head-bumps a lot, so I indulged him. He’s funny.
Then he and I played a game of “Get Out, Red Spot,” which is another new favorite. I cannot for the life of me figure out how that little red spot can move so fast, and why I can never seem to get my paws on it.
A while after that, the fuzzy one got out my MOST FAVORITE NEW FUN TOY EVARRR.
It was a mouse on a stick. When he flicked the stick, the mouse flew away, then mysteriously crept back toward the fuzzy one. This was irresistable. I threw myself into the game with great abandon. The monkeys hooted in that way they do when they’re entertained.
Then the fuzzy one let the mouse dangle above my head, just out of reach. I batted it briskly with my paw, and it came back around and hit me in the head. Outrageous! So I batted it right back, and it did the same thing from the other direction. It was time for me to FREAK OUT, whirling around and batting away, and still the mouse came back for more! Insolent little rodent.
The monkeys appeared to be having convulsions or something, so I stopped. They petted me and seemed to be assuring me that they were all right and they hoped I was enjoying my epic battle with the mouse.
Truth be told, I was.
There was more cuddling and so on before sleeptime, and again more cuddling this morning when they awakened which is now our settled routine. I do enjoy that so much.
However, because I suspected the monkeys were actually laughing at me last night and not having convulsions at all, I left them a little present on one of the soft green sit-things downstairs.
That’ll teach them to laugh at Riley. They must be taught to respect my authority.
