I forgot to mention ...

Big Black Speedy Spider 0. Ronin 1.

So, I got home from the gym day before yesterday. Chey and Pach as usual wanted to go out, so I went to the back door, turned on the light and let them out. As they were running out, a little eight legged intruder came scurrying in. The little critter had apparently been waiting at the door for me to open it. Now, I'm all for intelligence, but not when it comes to arachnids. So, I pointed out the critter to Tal and Ronin. Neither one seemed very interested. Then the spider moved and Tal noticed, so he sniffed it and batted at it a couple times. It ran to hide, and he gave up. Hrmph.

Some protector he is. Spider 1, Taliesin 0.

At that point, I showed the spider to Ronin. Now, it's been winter, so he hasn't seen a bug in what? 6 months? And before that he was pretty darn small, so he looked at it, and tried to run away from me. I actually had to put his nose almost right on the spider, which of course made the spider move. That got Ronin's attention.

So, he batted at the spider and it took off running under the kitchen table. He followed it, squishing himself so he'd fit under those table legs, his ears really perked forward, tail twitching and oh was he an excited kitten!

Bat, munch, slurp, yum. No more spider. Hah!

Ronin 1, spider 0. (maybe -1 at this point, I'm not sure.)

And of course ever since, Ronin's been trying to get at the bugs he sees outside...