Mr. Cooper's Wild Ride and Other Cooper Games

You may remember that in our last post, we told you about Cooper and his affinity for Ferris's soft-sided work-carrier.  Cooper likes to play Mr. Toad's Wild Ride with Ferris's carrier. Please enjoy this video of Cooper's new favorite game:  

Mr. Cooper's Wild Ride

And Cooper's new favorite toy:

Okay, truth be told, this is actually everybody's favorite new toy, except for Ferris, who still finds it uninteresting.  Or maybe he figures he has his own kitty tree at work so he doesn't want to hog it.  Even Coco likes the wall toy:

And that's saying something.  These pictures don't demonstrate it, but the cats are having a ball wrestling each other and chasing each other all over this thing.  So far, I haven't been able to catch a video of it, but stay tuned...

While we're on the subject of Cooper games, some of you might remember previous posts in which Cooper demonstrates his affinity for running away.  What we finally figured out is that he's not running "away."  He's just playing "hide-and-go-seek," or, in Cooper parlance,  "pull-one-over-on-the-stupid-hoomans."  One of the ways we learned to mitigate the running-away thing was to start closing the sliding door that separates the kitchen (which has the back door) from the living room, which essentially sets up a "lock system" that puts two sets of doors between Cooper and the Great Outdoors.  The rule is that if the outside door is open, the kitchen door must be closed, and Cooper must be on the other side of it.

Which ended up accidentally turning into another one of Cooper's favorite games.  

We started playing this one a couple of years ago.  In this game, one or the other of us opens the kitchen door (with the back door to the house securely closed) and Cooper comes dashing into the kitchen, where he promptly flops upon the floor.  Sean or I (and sometimes both of us) will proclaim loudly something to the effect of "Oh my goodness!  Cooper's in the kitchen!" or "Oh my goodness--there's a CAT in the kitchen!!"  Cooper, for his part, stretches luxuriously on the floor while smiling from ear to ear, his eyes all squinched up in self-satisfaction.  This, to Coopie, is a VERY satisfying game.  And it doesn't seem to matter how many times he's done it (easily thousands of times, by this point), he still finds it hilarious.  

The only time it's not fun is if I make the mistake of not making a big deal about him "getting into" the kitchen.  If I am distracted or in a hurry and just walk right past him, he comes looking for me, rubbing against the wall, makes eye contact, then runs right back into the kitchen and flops again.  It's like he's saying, "okay, Big Buddy Girl, you missed your cue, but I'll give you another chance to get it right this time."  

Thank goodness for second chances.  Otherwise, we'd miss all the fun in life.  Cooper, though?  He's not missing ANYTHING.