Kitten therapy!

 Purr-scription for Wellness

Patient Name: [Your Name Here]

Date: July 8, 2025

Rx: Kitten Therapy

Dosage: As needed, minimum 30 minutes daily. May be increased for acute stress, excessive news consumption, or prolonged exposure to political commentary.

These are photos from the weekend with Junior. I meant to post these on Sunday along with a weekend walk report (now scrubbed for lack of content) but time got the better of me and I was also engaged in kitty therapy on the live interactive front. Junior has become much more comfortable with me over our playtime together with just a few sessions using the feather toy (thank you, Docken for the toy and thank you for encouraging my engaging in the activity).

Holding a DSLR with a 70-300mm lens in my right hand and maneuvering the "fishing pole" feather toy with my left hand proved challenging at first but I eventually was able to acquire a satisfactory technique. Thank goodness for autofocus and forget about many changes on the zoom.

Sunday, June 6th. 

 And because I took so long, here are images from Monday, June 8th. I'm trying to control myself but across two AM sessions with Junior I took 323 photos. 

 PS, the silver and orange device in the background of some images is my Little Giant (but freakin heavy) ladder. I am "supposed" to be pruning the 16'+ tall ficus trees surrounding my patio but ya know... kitty therapy comes first. 

As an added bonus, here's what I deal with around (often well before) sunrise every morning, the kitty trifecta. The triangular placement of food dishes is calculated and remember all of these cats are feral, they are not particularly inclined to my being in close proximity. Arms length (30") is about the best I can get. This picture was taken on Sunday, July 6th at 5:49 AM.

 MEOW!

  

 

Playtime for Junior

 I'm getting close anyway... Long before Kalika and her kitten Junior were around, Docken gave me a cat toy she refers to as a "fishing pole." It's a telescoping rod in three retractable sections that lock outside of the main handle section. Attached to the end section, on a piece of fishing line, are a small cluster of pink feathers and a little metal ball that produces a distinctive rattling sound. My gratitude to Docken for this thoughtful gift. She has one too and often has to find places to hide it from her cats, Annie and Clark to prevent excessive playtime. Out of sight, out of mind works for cats too. Sometimes. 

Fully telescoped, it's about 71" long plus another 22" for the dangling fishing line and feathers. 

 
A couple of days ago, I brought it out to the patio and tried to get Junior to notice it before she ran off and hid behind her favorite plumbago bush to no avail. However, my interaction with Junior both yesterday and today was very different. It appears that she has developed a certain level of familiarity and affection towards me and seems to welcome my presence without hesitation. Notably, she has ceased darting behind the plumbago bush. This is at least true about 2/3 of the time I enter the patio in her company. 

Today, I brought my camera out, sat behind the patio table and got her to pay interest in the fishing pole's enticing feathers moving about.

First, here are a couple of pictures from yesterday because it was yesterday, July 3rd, that I felt a new level of acceptance from Junior.

 And here's our interaction today with the fishing pole.

 

This is how close she got to me. The pink feathers are dancing on the kitty "Coolaroo" lounge just on the other side of that ficus tree.

 By the way, Lucy was just modestly interested. She's 19 years and about 3 months old. She's quite advanced and is working on her PhD in quantum mechanics.

 
 And speaking of fishing, cats liking fish and stuff of a similar nature...