Am I cruel?

Every now and then Paris (and only ever Paris) develops an odd suspicion against some random inanimate object that's existed in the house for ages. It starts with her giving it an evil look from somewhere way up high, glaring at it as if it will come to life, dance a jig, and she'll catch it in the act.

Usually at some point in her staring competition with the item, Cairo will be making her rounds rubbing herself up against everything and anything in the house, murring for attention. She almost always rubs against the item under surveillance without event. At this point Paris decides to test the waters. With Cairo long gone and unharmed, she cautiously approaches the item, craning her neck as far out as she can to leave her body a safe distance from the threat. As quickly as she sniffs, she pulls back and peers threateningly at the object. Then she goes back in for another sniff, maybe if she's feeling brave, a whack with the paw.

This goes on for a bit, and just as she's gaining the courage to be comfortable with the item, I drop a tissue on Paris which sends her dashing away after a record breaking leap into the air.

OK, I admit, the tissue dropping was completely intentional. I have such a laugh, and this whole ritual can go on for hours until she finally comes to accept the existence of this object as a non-threat. And then a few days later it's another item and she falls for the tissue again. Am I cruel to play into her game? I just have so much fun watching her do this.

I do the same thing with Tiger except I make a little hissing noise which sends him flying 10 feet up in the air. I get such a laugh too. As far as being cruel... If I don't do it, something will eventually do it anyway. Now if he was an older cat.... maybe that would be kinda cruel... but Tiger is young.

KITTY ABUSE! KITTY ABUSE!

Oh, it's so funny when they get startled like that -- but I've never done it to them intentionally, you evil woman!

I wonder if Paris is just entertaining herself this way, creating adversaries in her mind so she can attack and subdue 'em. Or maybe she's practicing, in case there's a revolution and she has to defend the house against the marauding feline hordes...

Popsie's done that before. Just pick some random object and act like it's something that hasn't been there before. I usually go Pssst real loud and he'll jump.

Mine'll do that too, and I "booga-booga!" them - I think they were startled at first, but now they like it (they set themselves up)...I think Paris probably thinks it's funsies too, or she'd be a lot more cautious about your location when she's Stalking The Unknown...but if you're really seriously wondering, look at her tail right after she super-jumps (if you can) - if it's up, or if she's got it crooked at the end, she's enjoying your Stealth Tissue. If it's down or puffed, she's not happycats.

To this day I can't own one of those upright vaccum cleaner dolls that hide them.
My mom had one on hers when I lived there, Spaz immediately disliked the odd looking, pasty faced, short woman that was always standing in the corner of the livingroom.

One day as she was walking past (and giving it a very wide berth), my stepdad slowly reached over with his toe and turned the vaccum on.
Well, let's just say that after that incident, Spaz attacked the odd looking, pasty faced short woman at every opportunity, so badly that the poor doll looked like she'd been tossed into a mine field.

OMG Arlyn that is priceless! You better just hope that an odd looking, pasty faced short woman doesn't really come to your home, like to sell magazine subscriptions or something.

Well, she is the sweetest cat in the world, but man, I would never want to be on her wrong side, she is ruthless.
This same kitty carried around a poor, frightened mouse for three days like it was her kitten.
No hunting instinct whatsoever, but her fight or flight instinct is a bit skewed.

I love to startle Sho, it's so easy that it's hard to resist. He always gives me a dirty look afterwards that seems to say "You should be ashamed of yourself!".

Once DH was playing a game and paused it to get up, well the pause screen had weird ambient noises and some movement. Sho creeped over and seemed almost hypnotized by it, so much so that he didn't see me sneaking up behind him. I poked him and he had to have jumped 4+ feet straight up into the air. An amazing stunt that he has never repeated, in fact I'm not entirely sure that he could repeat that.

Tomas barely startles and then complains at me for it afterwards, he's no fun.

I've never done that before......but now want to try it. Now that's evil.