A peace offering?

Ever since we moved into this house, the cats have had a funny sort of ritual. Quite often, on weekdays, John and I return home from work to find one of the cat toys sitting at the front door to welcome us home. Maybe a candy cane with a bell in it. Maybe a fake mouse. It was like "Dear parents: we feel indebted to you for all that you do for us and therefore, we have gone hunting and present you with this (candy cane, catnip cushion, mouse, etc.) as an offering. Warmest regards, Cat." As a result, John and I started to call this "being left an offering". I have seen outdoor cats doing this with real dead mice, birds, etc. but I had never heard of an indoor cat doing the same thing with toys. I guess it is an animal instinct of sorts.

We're not actually sure if both cats do this or just one of them. I'd seen Bella skulking around the house with the toys in her mouth but had never caught anyone in the act of leaving us anything so we can't give Bella all the credit just yet.

Strangely (or perhaps not), the offerings have become quite sporadic since I have been home from work with Max. Maybe this can be chalked up to nerves or the catnippiness of the toys losing its oomph. I sure don't want to believe that the cats are harbouring some sort of residual anger and have deemed me unworthy of offerings for being so bold as to tip the human/feline balance in the house.

So this past Sunday morning, I came downstairs to see this on the living room floor:


Yes, the cats had left not one but two mousy offerings right next to Max's beloved play gym. I'm not sure if this actually means anything significant in terms of the cats' relationships with Max but I'm going to consider it an offering of peace and leave it at that. It certainly made me smile.

Below will be a line saying that this is posted by Holly. I did indeed start this post but anyone who knows us can see that it has a dash of John added to the mix so consider this a joint post.