Mouse Toy Installations

Shirley Honey with her latest installation, Two Mice on Coffee Table. 2019. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Mouse Toy Installations

It’s officially fall and I’m not the only one decorating my house for the new season. I came home earlier this week to find someone else had carefully added toy mice decorations to my living room.

This was not the first time.

The artist known as Shirley Honey has made other installations over the years. There was a toy frog left in the middle of a sink in her early days; I think she was trying to find her aesthetic. Then there was a thin blue ribbon left in one of my shoes that was curious and posed a bit of a problem when I tried to wear them. She seemed to think the ribbon should remain inside the shoe because she kept returning it to the shoe whenever I had the shoe off.

She regularly spreads toys over the hallway rug with periodic moments of - well, artistic brilliance may be too strong a word but there does seem to be a design of some sort with the toys she drags out of her toy baskets.

I don’t know how many cats have an artistic aesthetic for home decor but Shirley Honey seems to have an extra dose.

She leaves several toys at the bedroom entrance every morning. I know which ones are her favorites by how often they show up. The arrangements are fine until I find one that isn’t a toy. Shirley Honey has been known to leave a dead mouse in the middle of the toys.

When Shirley Honey first started, I made the gauche mistake of removing the items. They were returned where they had been initially left. Err, I mean installed. And Shirley Honey sat next to them, staring at me as if to say they didn’t leave until she moved them.

I got the message.

The artist known as Shirley Honey making sure I don’t disturb her art work. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you have lived with cats, you know how unique their personalities can be. Shirley Honey was a rescue, I found her on my deck one hot August, possibly one of the cats my neighbor complained was living in his compost pile. The vet said she is part Maine Coon, which explains why she is always ready to play and invents her own rules. These installations were all her idea.

After a period of time, the artist herself may move them elsewhere or, better yet, not mind my doing the clean up but she does decide how long the installations stay. If I try to move them too early, she will return the items where she originally put them.

Now that I am properly trained, I leave the artwork untouched. After all, who am I to know when the installation has lost its artistic and viewing value.

This time I took photos and ran an errand. When I got back and went to check on her curled up in her favorite napping spot, I found another work of art. Apparently this toy mouse decor look is a personal fall favorite.

The artist known as Shirley Honey with a toy mouse installation by her chair. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

No, I didn’t put it there. And I didn’t touch it.

If I could just convince her to return the toys to her toy baskets…

I have to confess, it is a cute home decor look having the toy mice next to the napping cat. Maybe I’m starting to understand her artistic point of view?

Ah, the life of a feline artist.

Charlotte