STOP THAT FLY!

People often comment how lazy cats are. Never have I heard someone say how patient they can be.

While it’s true that cats sleep a lot, if awake and they’ve spotted a fly (or another bug) I’m amazed at their perseverance to catch the intruder.

Yesterday a fly zipped past my nose, but by the time I swatted at it, it was long gone. The fly kept pestering me again and again, and while at one point one of my fingers did make contact, the fly kept coming back for more.

It didn’t take long for Holly to spot the fly too and she made it her mission to be its terminator. She positioned herself on a side table near the sliding door, ready to attack anything that came in or went out.

At first the fly stayed out of Holly’s way, but eventually his curiosity or foolish playfulness got the better of him and the fly did a fly by right under Holly’s nose.

Holly’s attention which, after half an hour of no action, was slacking, was suddenly on high alert. Her head turned from left to right and up and down, following the fly wherever he went.

A few times, when within reach, Holly made a grab for it, but came up empty handed. Still, she didn’t give up. Again and again and again she tried to catch that buzzer.

At some point, she almost succeeded. She sat on the floor by the door, the fly flew over her head, Holly reached up with both paws and … while failing to catch the fly, she did manage to throw it out.

The fly, clearly knocked senseless and perhaps suffering a headache, sat on the tiles for a few seconds before taking off.

We thought that was the end of it, but we were wrong, today the fly (or another fly) was back. Holly, who so far had slept peacefully, woke up and kept an eye on her fast food (or afternoon snack). She sat on the table, followed the fly with her eyes wherever it went and waited patiently. So patiently in fact that I started to wonder how much longer she was going to sit there, not moving, not even her ears or her tail.

Having practiced her swing the previous day the fly didn’t stand a chance. After having buzzed around the chandelier for a while, it came down for landing and … zap, Holly’s paw shot out, she grabbing it out of the air and smacked the fly on the table, covered it with her other paw and bend down to eat it.

Unfortunately, the fly was no dummy and it played dead under Holly’s paw. The moment Holly bend down and lifted her paw slightly to eat it, the fly flew away.

While I can only imagine that Holly said “STOP THAT FLY!” the fly from his side shouted “SEE YA!”