Rob and I have American versions of Aussie bush hats that we put lapel pins
on from
places we've been or things we've done.  Rob's hat is fuller than mine
as he has a lot of Sikorsky helicopter brag pins on his.  His also has a
shoe string
on it that I had tied to Rob's bed at the hospital in order to encourage him
to work his hands.  Some one tied it to the hat where the chin strap loops
through
to tie to the hatband.  The hat is stored on a nail above the entry to the
bathroom
vestibule.  Usually the string is kept up where no cats can be tempted.  It
is a
long string, about six feet or so, and made of leather.  Merlin has been
fascinated
by it since it came home with Rob.

Today, the evil string was dangling down, threatening the safety and peace
of mind
of the family.  Merlin, the great feline sniffer, went hunting.  He grabbed
at the
end of the string and missed, though his claws scrabbling against the
drywall got
Rob's and my attention.  He tried a second time and made it.  He pulled at
that
evil string and it finally gave in and came after him. . . bringing the hat
down
with it.  The hat almost hit Merlin, who jumped back across the room in one
bound.
Of course Merlin had meant for that hat to come down so that the two of them
could
tough it out on a level playing field.

Merlin carefully went into his stalking the veldtebeast on the wild
Serengetti technique.
It worked.  The hat never saw him coming.  He smacked the hat around a bit;
the
slutty thing had it coming to it.  The hat accepted the punishment meekly
and submitted
to Merlin's will.  Bored, Merlin gave the hat a parting slap and paced over
to the door to the hallway where he sat and watched for danger coming to
threaten
his Paw.