In the Mahoney house it's not possible to go to the bathroom in privacy.
Passing through the bathroom door is guaranteed to bring at least one,
usually two or three kitties running to keep you company. So it was no
surprise when Samuel came dashing through the bathroom door right after
me this morning.

I was petting Sammy and telling him what a handsome kitty guy we is,
when I heard Ranger's colar tag jingling. That told me that Ranger must
be running towards his favorite playmate, Sammy.

Most of you have probably seen what I call the "monster pounce" pose.
That's where the kitty spreads her front paws wide to the side at the
beginning of the pounce, the better to get smack her prey. When I looked
over towards Ranger's sounds, I saw ranger in mid-leap, flying through
the air in "monster pounce" configuration, directly for Sammy. Sammy
dealt with the attack with his usual gentle, playful response and ran
from the room with Ranger following.

But I soon figured out that Sammy actually *enjoys* being chased by
Ranger! A couple minutes after the two kitties ran from the room Sammy
ran back back in and was followed by the sound of Ranger's collar tag
tinkling along behind. This time I was able to catch Ranger in
mid-pounce and pet her for a couple minutes while Sammy escaped. But
Sammy only ran as far as the bedroom door then stopped and waited for me
to put Ranger back down. As soon as I did and Ranger had seen Sammy
again, Sammy resumed his run for the safety of the bed. He wanted to be
sure that Ranger knew where he had run off to!