Joey and the Giant Pointer

There's big new fun in our household these days - the laser pointer. I've heard for years, and read tons online, about how laser pointers are great cat toys. But I've always thought that it wouldn't work for us, that it would be either boring or just too easy for my smart boy Joey to enjoy. Boy was I wrong.

We can now spend hours, literally hours, pointing the thing on the floor, or up the wall, and watching him go crazy for it. Adam's favorite trick is to make Joe chase it across the floor and then suddenly turn it off, so he's sitting there wondering where it went. A few minutes ago I managed to make him chase it so hard he ran into the garbage can because he wasn't paying attention. And the best of all? We can do this from our sofa, chair or bed! No more racing up and down the stairs with him with the toy on the string, or getting up to find the mousie toy under the sofa. (Yeah, we're lazy like that. Sad, I know.)

Most of you may know that, as far as I'm concerned, Joey is a perfect cat but for one small flaw: he wakes up, and wakes us up, every morning between 5:30 and 6:30 am. He meows for about 30 minutes and then goes back to sleep, right next to me. I've done a bunch of research on how to cure this, and most of the blogs and forums I've read suggest to tire him out before bed, so he'll sleep longer. So we've been using the laser pointer for his nightly exercise - now Joey goes to bed most nights completely exhausted and we've had a good laugh at his expense. But we're still up at 5:30 am! Damn.