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...