Biting the bullet

R is (amongst other things) a professional conference speaker.  At one he attended recently, everyone was given a Nerf gun as part of their conference pack, and were encouraged to shoot speakers with it if they ran over their time.

This sounds to me like a really bad idea; the idea of around 400 mainly young, mainly male people let loose in a conference centre with even toy guns is a recipe for someone getting shot in the eye and someone else getting sued.  But anyway R came back with this gun, and I gave him strict instructions not to shoot it anywhere in the house (imagine a 200 year old vase getting knocked off a shelf and breaking).  R promised he would not.

The next day, I came into the downstairs hall, and there was one of the bullets from the gun lying in the middle of the floor.  I remonstrated with R and he denied outright that he had anything to do with it.  Then Saphy ran up and started batting the bullet around – mystery solved – the cats like Nerf gun bullets.

So we tied one to a string and it became the all time favourite toy.  They have chased it around, carried it up and down stairs and given it a really good biting.  Several weeks later, the bullet looks like this.

We have decided to give this one an honourable discharge – but the cats need not worry, there are nineteen more left.