In our own backyard

We have spent a silly amount of money and time trying to appease Queen Jaffa with ridiculous cat toys - all kinds of scratching boards and plastic mice with randomly protruding feathers. All kinds of sparkling strings and rattles and widgets on wheels that scuttle across the floor. The only thing consistent in the whole process of courting QJ's attentions has been her disdainful boredom and our escalating desperation.

Then a few days ago, Delta crumpled a waste sheet of paper into a ball and threw it towards the bin, when QJ's head suddenly perked up. Crouching low and tensing her entire body, she pounced on the ball as though it were a mortal enemy. Amused, we tried to kick the ball away, but QJ was having none of it. She chased and bounded and pounced and clawed - all of a sudden, she had adopted the paper ball as her much-quested toy.

So we tied the balled paper to a piece of drawstring pulled out from Delta's boardshorts, and there you had it, the perfect cat toy. Through no effort or credit of our own, QJ had found for herself her own little enemy to stalk, pounce and play with.

And seriously, play with it she does, in much of her waking hours. Who woulda thunk a little ball of paper would have done the trick. They never told me that in the pet stores, that's for sure.