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Sock Cruelty To Cats [Cats] 28th August 2001 Cats are fun. I like having cats. Among all the pleasant things like patting them and having them rush up and greet you when you come home, there are also the dark, secret pleasures of owning a cat. Cruelty to cats. Teasing them. Nothing bad or dangerous or harmful, just fun that's slightly on the cruel side. My jet-setting mother-in-law, Evelyn, visited us again recently. After she left, we found a pair of airline socks. These are the extremely cheap and flimsy socks that you get in the comfort packs given out by airlines on the long flights. I found these grey socks one night, and picked them up and wondered what to do with them. I looked down and there were our two complacent, fat and sleepy cats. Aha. The first sock went straight on Ruffian's head. There was no danger, she could breathe, and she wasn't panicked. But she didn't like it much. She looked so funny that I grabbed the camera immediately. She looked like a creature out of the early pages of the Metal Hurlant magazine from the 1970s. She hunched and crouched and tested and shook her head, and staggered a few steps forward and a few steps backward. The sock stayed on. While Ruffian was rolling around and trying to work out what to do, our little Queen Redrum sat there totally unconcerned. Anne had joined the game by this stage. Here you can see Anne advancing on an unsuspecting Redrum with sock outstretched. Gotcha and Redrum wears a sock too. So now there's two cats trying to work out how to remove a sock from their heads. Redrum struggles, but has as much success at removing the sock as Ruffian. Their problem is that in the past when we've covered them with stuff, they just have to shake their heads and back away and it falls off. Not this time. Enough's enough. After a very brief, but very funny few minutes, the socks come off. Anne grabs the end, stretches them out and up and the socks pop off the heads. They immediately flopped to their sides, all worn out from the brief tussle.