Thank you.
My favorite one is the bottom-left. Her face was so expressive and you can tell she is not a fan of costumes.
She was our sweetheart and our little cuddle-bug but she had a "spicy" side - as one vet-tech put it - as well. She had quite the reputation at our local vet's office. She knew which doorways & hallways in the vet's office led to places where unpleasant things occurred - as well as which personnel were most likely to try to draw some blood, her least favorite thing - and was quite demonstrative in expressing her displeasure. Yes, she had basically memorized the floorplan of the vet's office.
She was far too smart for her own good. She could unclasp and escape from a figure-8 harness in under 30 seconds when she was young (and we were dumb enough to think we could take her for a walk). She got quite overweight and I was trying to get her to exercise, so to speak. The only toy she would regularly play with was a laser pointer but she had very quickly figured out that we were controlling it, so she would just come and take the pointer out of our hands and then sit on it. Then, I found this "automatic" laser pointer toy. It randomly changed speed and direction, projecting the laser over a large area of the floor, with the overall pattern being an ellipse. She chased it for almost an hour the first day, taking breaks to watch us and investigate our hands to make sure we weren't controlling it. Then, the second day, she chased it for about 10 minutes or so. Then, she stopped, walked over to the edge of the living room, and just watched it for a while. I was thinking, "I hope she's not tired of it already." Then, she walked over to a spot on the floor close to her - though the pointer was currently on the other side of the room - and laid down. Then she waited for the laser to pass by and tried to swat it with her paw as it passed. She realized that she didn't have to chase it; she could just lay down and wait for it to come to her, once she identified a spot that it passed by multiple times. She never forgot that and enjoyed playing with it for years - she just basically only exercised her neck muscles.
My favorite story, though, is when I realized the true depth of her thought processes, so to speak - with an unbiased, third-party witness. My buddy Bryan came over to watch the World Cup games live when it was in Korea, IIRC, and the games started at like 3:00 am. We were living in a loft apartment and the living room was in the middle of the building, so there were no windows. Lil'Bit loved to sleep on the couch or loveseat - on which she wasn't allowed without a blanket - and she was so sound asleep when I flipped on the light that she didn't wake up. So, I walked over to her, scolded her, and swatted her bottom. She jumped down off the couch, meowed at me with a little bit of a hiss, walked a few feet away, stuck her tail straight up into the air, wiggled her bottom, and laid down - keeping her tail up, exposing her anus to me. (For you non-cat people, this is a sign of displeasure or disrespect.) After a few minutes, she got up, walked over to me, craned her neck toward me, and meowed as if to ask for petting. I reached down to pet her and she meowed at me with a little bit of a hiss, walked a few feet away, stuck her tail straight up into the air, wiggled her bottom, and laid down - keeping her tail up, exposing her anus to me. Bryan's reaction was the funniest - since this was his first time seeing it. She was actively telling me, spitefully, that she was still angry and he didn't think cats could think like that. I didn't either, until her.
She certainly kept us on our toes...
