Lost and Found

Well, this week I have been really successful at finding important things! Like, my backbone. But more importantly, I found my cats' toys. Under the fridge.*
When the little bastards first came home with me, there were two little mousies, and four colorful jingle balls. In the past month, one by one, all of these toys have gone missing. But my cats are still very young, and so they still have to play. And so, in the absence of their toys, they have improvised. I knew things had gotten out of hand when this morning, I discovered my Prozac bottle, a small trinket box, and a stray sock under the bed. Those little buggers are easily amused, it seems.

So I went on a hunt for the missing toys. I checked under the sofa, behind the desk, in the pantry, under the bed. No luck. And finally, I checked under the fridge:

So, everything, every freaking toy, was stuck far back under the fridge. So, we went to work and started plotting a toy intervention rescue thingy. A broomstick was too unwieldy, a hanger was too short, and so finally I fashioned a stick-pokey thingy by binding three rulers together with new hair ties.

And no, I have no idea why I have three rulers. Maybe at some point in my wild past I had to measure something really, really big? I honestly don't know. That shall be this week's Big Question that I ponder.

Anyway.
So, I start poking around under the stove with the crude stick-pokey thingy.

The cats helped by walking in front of my face, sticking their tails in my mouth, and swatting at the stick-pokey thingy. Finally, success! I retrieved all the toys, and a lot of unidentifiable under-stove gunky-goop. I think it may have been considered an E.B.E., by some standards. I am trying not to think too much about it. Next time the cats can retrieve their damned toys themselves.
*And no, I did not find my backbone under the fridge. I had to look harder for that, 'cause backbones are a little more elusive.