Teaching a Dumb Cat Dog tricks

It occurred to me that Jo isn't a very "fun" cat. I mean, she runs from me, and attacks me, but she doesn't really do anything cute like play with string. I'm not saying I'm not grateful for what she is, a great companion, but still, I was at my old neighbors for pizza tonight, and Kim showed us that her car, Nala, will play fetch.

Nala, or Bast, as i want to call her because of her Egyptian-cat ears and demon tail.

Nala, an adorable cat with a forked tail, will, time and time again chase after and retrieve a ball when thrown like a dog. Unlike a dog, she won't bring the ball back to you. If you're lucky, she'll deposit it next to your outstretched hand, or if you're unlucky, she will leave it halfway down the hall for you to retrieve. She's nobody's fool she knows that she's doing all the work and she's having none of it.

Her creepy forked tail. It's really awkward when you're petting her under the table and the tail slips between her fingers. *shudder*

Also, unlike a dog, she's not an idiot. I tried the pretending to throw the ball trick, the one where any dog will go running off after nothing, but she was not fooled; her eyes never left that ball.

I was having a great time with this (she actually got bored with it before I did, but that says more about me than the cat, doesn't it? Conveniently, she got bored as soon as I got my camera out too. Unfortunate), and thought to myself, why doesn't Jo, or even Julius do something this cool. That's not to say they have their own tricks. Jules has to get up, no matter what, if you whistle at the right pitch, and Jo, well, she knows every possible way to get under my skin, and also, she can open the handles on my parents old fashioned ice box, where we used to keep her food.

As unimpressive as that is after seeing it a few hundred times, it still proves something. She can be motivated by food. So, starting tomorrow, I shall begin trying to teach Jo to play fetch.