The Magic of String

If there's one house chore I particularly detest, it's recycling old newspapers. Now, I'm a big tree hugger from way back, and I totally support the process of recycling. It's a very worthwhile endeavor.

That said, I DO wish that my honey didn't subscribe to QUITE so many newspapers. (He really has to to keep on top of news reports in his industry.) It seems that, the minute I've cleared the papers off of our dining table, ten more immediately take their place.

We're preparing for a party event here next week, so this weekend was scrub down the old, dusty, spider-ridden farmhouse weekend. Fun! Silly me, I didn't even think to get some rubber gloves. Now the tips of the fingers on my right hand are actually BURNED from using so much bleach on stuff.

But the other big chore was to tie up about a year's worth of newspapers (well, really, maybe a few weeks' worth) to get them ready for recycling. We have a recycling dump where we take everything. We're not set up to have a truck pick up everything here at our place.

So, there I was, armed with a huge ball of string and a hefty pair of scissors, prepared to tackle this huge chore.

And guess who showed up to help me?

About every cat within a mile's radius, that's who.

Well, really, it was just Roman (orange cat), his sister Becka, Tiger, and Smoky. Quite the cat convergence. How sweet of them to all "help" me tie up the newspapers.

Really, they're so cute and hilarious as they jump on the string. I'd much rather play with them all day, anyway!

But I had to wonder something as I saw them go bonkers for the string. What makes cats crazy about string, anyway? I mean, it's not like string naturally occurs in the wild. Feral cats aren't accustomed to hunting down roving packs of string to bring home a tasty supper. (If they are, then I missed that episode of the Animal Planet.)

And yet, when you take out a ball of string, some natural instinct takes over in the local kitty population. Their nervous systems would appear to be hard-wired to enjoy string.

After many detours involving chasing games and cat and string tag, I did eventually finish my recycling work.

And, even though it took longer than it would have if ours were a cat-free home, I have to admit that the delays and detours were a lot of fun!