How to Entertain An Indoor Cat

All of us, even cats, need to exercise and keep interested in things. During the winter months and still under the weight of a pandemic, that can become really hard for humans. For much of the last week the weather has been too unwelcoming to encourage me to do my daily outdoor walks, and even I have had to look for sources for getting extra physical and mental activity in the house. I even spent much of Saturday cleaning the house. My indoor cats need more stimulation than I can often give them, too. I keep some of their toys stored away so that I can bring new ones out every so often so they will have something "new" to entertain them. But one of the easiest ways I have found, which also benefits the birds and my lone squirrel, is to keep my bird feeder well stocked. Sully, who typically spends most winter days either snoozing in my warm closet or on top of the heat vent in my bedroom, has been much more active during the day since I started refilling the feeder regularly. Sometimes I see him racing from one window to another and skulking down in front of one so he can visually stalk the birds. He knows that frequently they will fly to one of the branches of the nearby magnolia tree or climbing hydrangea to await their turns at the feeder. So I will see him running from the living room into the bedroom or the bedroom to dining room and even to downstairs where there also are windows that look out on the bird feeder and the various nearby trees and bushes. Once parked in front of a window, he tries to look invisible and is extremely still and intent on what he sees outside. It's really quite amusing. Here is Sully yesterday afternoon spying on the feeder itself, which at the time had several purple finches, and a couple of Cardinals on it. On the ground below the feeder was the lone squirrel and a Mourning Dove. I just checked the feeder. It looks like I need to go and refill it again before Sully wakes up from one of his naps.