My wife and I were at a friend's house and she asked if we would like to take a cat toy. After several months her girl had expressed no interest in it and maybe our guys would like it.

It had a heavy base with a large spring rising up with a fuzzy mouse on the top of the spring. Whitey Ford was never one for play but Kitty liked to chase things and he liked to absolutely destroy toy mice. We brought it home and put it out in the living room. Both cats checked it out and then nothing. It seemed it was a failure here too.

After a few weeks we were watching TV and Whitey started sniffing the mouse on the spring. I pointed it out to my wife, 'I thinks he might play with it.' He didn't. Instead, he took one big paw and held the side of the mouse and began to clean it.

Whitey was always a stickler for good grooming. He cleaned a lot and a once a day he would groom for forty five minutes or so getting everything just right. He sat there and carefully groomed that mouse from it's nose to the end of it's tail. From then on he groomed mousey every evening. Eventually mousey had no nose, tail or fur left. For whatever reason Whitey loved and cared for his mousey.

Aww, Whitey Ford....

Here's where I admit that I never read the Velveteen Rabbit because I am such a softie that I somehow just knew it would be too much for me.

mightshould, it and the Little Match Girl always kill me.

Hah, and that's another one I thankfully avoided....

I've not read the Velveteen Rabbit either, but I love the idea of Whitey Ford caring for his toy mouse.

He was a good mouse parent.