Animals are our “servants, playfellows, jesters,” says C. S. Lewis, possibly in That Hideous Strength. While Simon is a little short on the servant side of the idea, playfellow and jester fit well. Simon’s goofiness manifests itself many ways and can break out when we least expect it.
One night, for example, Simon had gone to the kitchen for a drink, apparently. Suddenly we heard a terrible racket there, consisting of bumpings and bangings and on-the-floor slidings, accompanied with ferocious growling. When I went to see what was happening, I was nearly run over by Simon, who, with both front feet in the empty, heavy plastic water bowl, was riding or pushing the bowl rapidly around the slippery kitchen floor, growling ferociously.
Who could keep from laughing? Whether he was trying to get the bowl to fill with water or simply taking advantage of a new kind of toy, I could not say, but there was no doubt about his earnestness and his pleasure.
Now I have to pick up Dexter’s and Frollie’s food bowls as soon as they are finished eating, for Simon has discovered that their bowls slide even better than the water bowl and that, since they are metal, they make more noise.
Seeing Simon surfing the slippery kitchen floor, in a metal food bowl, is truly a sight worth seeing, providing you do not get run over in the process.