Henry gets a new toy and gets to entertain his cousin, Cynthia

Today Henry had a new experience.   For the whole two years he has lived here, he has NEVER had the thrill of participating in the local transfer station exhange program.  Today he did.  Matthew gathered all the trash and other treasures and headed on up to the transfer station (otherwise known as the Dump), only this time he invited Henry to come along for the ride.  Henry was thrilled.  He mewed and whined and made all kinds of 'where are we going now' noises.  I think he was also a bit unnerved having to sit in the front passenger seat.  It is not what he is used to, but the amount of items to be left at the transfer station precluded his sitting in his normal back seat by the window.

When Henry and Matt arrived at the Dump, I mean, transfer station, Henry had to patiently wait for Matt to clear his car of all the disposable items.  After that, Henry had to wait for Matt to check out the actual "mall" area for exchanges that might be of use.  NEVER underestimate what might be found in such a place.  My husband has brought back some very remarkable items; in fact finding old redwing art pottery that generally lists for many hundreds of dollars in collector catalogues. (And I thought the thing was as ugly as sin).  Well, when Matt returned from the "mall" area, he had in his possession a blue and green plaid necktie for himself and a horrific orange and black and grey stuffed toy snake measuring approimately five feet for Henry.  Can you even believe this thing????

Well, Henry could and he spent the entire rest of the day trouncing it, biting it, playing with it, showing it off to anybody and everybody who would give him ten seconds to see it.  

And just when life could not get any better today, Henry was surprised to see his cousin Cynthia walk into his house late this afternoon.  And, he got to show her his new snake.  He raced and raced around the house dragging his snake, stopping to 'kill' it once in a while, all the time very, VERY proud of himself. 

I think the 'killing' thing is very instictual.  I have seen so many different animals 'kill' snakes in the exact same fashion, some on television programs, some in real life, some with stuffed animal snakes.....I remember our cat, Nova, back in 1995 bringing a little garter snake into the house and pounding the pudding out of it prior to presenting it to us.  Didn't take her more than a minute to dispatch it.  'Course she also  brought in a toad (her first 'kill') that was far from dead and proceeded to hop around our bedroom until we were able to catch it and return it to the part of the world outside our walls.

Back to Henry and lessons learned (or not) There is no doubt in my mind that he wants to work for us....even when he is in the absolute grip of being an 'independent thinker'....not so different from us human beans.....we do like recognition in one form or another for our thoughts, actions, motives.  Too bad we can be so lousy at the types of decisions we make in seeking that recognition.

Henry was so very disappointed to find he could not go trail riding with Cynthia; that he was to watch her from the ring.  At least while Cynthia worked on her riding skills on QTee, Henry did manage to find various forms of entertainment.