The chief defect of Henry King/ Was chewing little bits of string. –Shakespeare
Well, cats know better than to do that–most of ’em, at least.
My old cat Buster used to pick at rubber bands to make them go twang. It made for some pretty odd noises coming from the kitchen.
But when all is said and done, plain old string is a never-failing source of amusement, if you are a cat.
A word about string: Light string, such as kite string, can be swallowed by a cat and this can be lethal. More than once I’ve found one of my cats with a string hanging out of its mouth and gently pulled 20′ or so of string back out of their stomach before it could cause harm. These days I tie large, conspicuous knots in any strings (such as old shoestrings) so that they can’t be swallowed by a cat.
Thanks, I should have mentioned that.
It would appear to be not so much Shakespeare as Hilaire Belloc. Not criticizing, mind you.
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Cautionary_Tales_for_Children
I only said “Shakespeare” for a laugh.
You are absolutely right–it was Belloc.