Day 45: Stop that fly!

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 45: Stop that fly!

People often comment on 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 though, 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 Greyson to spot the fly too and she made it his mission to be its terminator. He positioned himself on the side table near the sliding door, ready to attack anything that came in or went out.

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

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

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

At some point, he almost succeeded. He sat on the floor by the door, the fly flew over his head, Greyson reached up with both paws and … while failing to catch the fly, he did manage to throw it out with a gesture of ‘Get out and stay 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. Greyson, who so far had slept peacefully, woke up and kept an eye on his fast food (or afternoon snack). He sat on the table, followed the fly with his eyes wherever it went and waited patiently. So patiently in fact that I started to wonder how much longer he was going to sit there, not moving, not even his ears or tail.

Having practiced his 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, Greyson’s paw shot out, he grabbed it out of thin air and smacked the fly on the table, covered it with his other paw and bend down to eat it.

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

While I can only imagine that Greyson yelled “STOP THAT FLY!” the fly from his side shouted, “SEE YAA!”