The Balloon Fiasco
When the boys were around five months old, we gave them one of those big silvery birthday balloons that you get at the grocery store.
They flippin' loved it! Boomer would drag it around the house by the string, while it bounced off the ceiling. They would stared at it dreamily from the top bunk of their cat tower. The two boys played with it for a month solid.
So when it came time to celebrate their one year birthday. . .we thought GREAT, we'll get them a couple of balloons & a big tub of Bonito fish flakes!
We picked out two big balloons shaped like ladybugs. . .red with big black spots, big wide open friendly eyes, little black hang down legs. Our cats LOVE bugs, so we bought them.
The second we came into the house with them. . .the cats roared out of the room. . .totally hauled bootsie! They were terrified & it was no joke.
Jasper hid out under the bed and would NOT come out. . .cried. Boomerang hid under the hutch and would NOT come out.
These cats totally trust us but would NOT take our word for it that it was a game. Something in the color patterning set off their alarms and they could not get past it.
We tried everything we could think of to show them it was nothing. . .and did have some SMALL measure of success with Boomer but Jaspy was a no go.
We had to deflate the ballons and throw them away to get them to calm down.
So for their first birthday, we scared the &*%* out of them. . .nice huh?
We felt just awful about it. AWFUL!