After a while, he got me quite a few toys - and we started to have regular evening play time. One of the best toys - a transparent jumpy marble - we were playing footbal with it. And since I’m all about efficiency - you won’t see me running around, hunting a rubber marble.
Instead, I found a place to use as a gate—and stood guard over any goal. He’s kindof clumsy - but he gets good after a bit of practice. So pretty soon I was losing the match. First time it was fun to dig it from under the shelf I called gate - but after a while - I ran and found a better place to track and catch the marble.
Then he started kicking a cloth rat puppet - and ya, that was cool too. I even got to catch it and kick it with my bunny legs. It was my precious - so I hid it somewhere.
Next day - and this is where things took a nasty turn - he asked me where I’d hid the rat. And I made the huge mistake to betray myself - it was behind the bathroom door of the small bathroom. And the huge mistake was letting him figure out that I understand everything he says. Because he started negotiating with me. And I was forced to do as he said - at least in some of the cases. Damn!
Another habit he caught during those days was to walk me in a backpack around a big lake. It was a sunny January - so most of the time it was a pleasant walk. But I had no control over the trip - so, at a certain point, bored and intrigued - I jumped straight on his shoulder and started checking both the view I’d missed and the one yet to come. After that day I claimed the right shoulder as my travel spot (maybe except for groceries shopping, when I have to fold back into the bag: people can be so loud when scolding us).
And later, whenever I missed the trip too much - I found the chair where he placed his backpack - and took a nap on top of the backpack. So that he learns: I want more trips. I suppose he figured that out just fine - because our next trip was with the car.
The actual drive was a bit weird, the car was doing all kinds of twists and turns - but I eventually figured the best place for drive-trip: his lap. That was barely moving - and I had a pretty good grip stuck between his legs. Just had to check on the window whenever he slowed down and turned: I really had to know if we arrived and where. Otherwise I was sleeping just fine.
For a few days it was amazing - we were walking in the forest. Almost no sound from the cars - and all the sounds of a wild place. Just as I like it. I got to smell rotten trees and chase a squirrell up a tree: he wasn’t prepared for that, barely let me climb. I would have caught it for sure.
We had a few amazing days - each was a joy in itself - and then we drove back home, with me as a sleepy copilot.