I’ll tell you right up front: We on the Lawrence Humane Society’s board of directors are just a bunch of pushovers.

For example: The shelter’s conference room currently houses a double-decker cage that holds this month’s feline stars: the gray shorthair Taz and the black shorthair Wentworth.

Wouldn’t you know, as we all filed in there the other night for our monthly meeting, everyone stopped at the cage to pet these cats, and then, like a bunch of starstruck kids, several started in: “Can we take them out during the meeting? Please? Can we?”

And that is why the board’s guest that evening, who was presenting some financial information we needed to vote on, found himself upstaged by two little members of the “general public” who played “bat the paper ball” under our feet and skidded unannounced across the conference table, scattering agendas and smacking into water bottles.

We tried to be grown up and focused, but gosh, Taz and Wentworth were just being so darned cute.

These two playful cats (both of whom, by the way, hope to find a loving home very soon) remind us that indoor cats – the only kind we’ll adopt out – don’t suffer for being kept indoors. In fact, indoor cats live, on average, between 12 and 15 years, compared with outdoor roamers, whose average life expectancy is less than three years.

We all know the hazards list of outdoor life: traffic, poisons, easily transmittable diseases (rabies, feline leukemia and feline infectious peritonitis), other animals and vicious people. So keeping them indoors just makes good sense. But once you decide to keep Fluffy inside, how do you keep him or her occupied? Can cats really be as happy as if they had the whole great outdoors for their playground?

Believe it or not, cats are perfectly happy inside, given the right set-up. We just have to be attentive to the fact that they get bored just like we do.

Cats are naturally great hunters. Their abilities appear as early as kittenhood, when they display their future prowess with running spurts and erratic flying leaps. As with the young of any animal species, kittens partake in this play in the formative months because it prepares them for the real thing. In the wild, running, stalking and jumping make them proficient mousers or bird catchers. These abilities, of course, aren’t much needed for indoor pets. Bowls of cat chow don’t tend to be very elusive prey.

Still, that energy and desire need some outlet, and this is where we owners have to get creative to help them express themselves.

One of my cats’ favorite games is “What’s That Under the Blanket?” A piece of string or yarn, or even just a hand, make the best wild animals to stalk. Vary the speed of movement, let it disappear under the blanket or a sheet of newspaper and then re-appear, and your cat will be transported. Limit your play times to about 10 minutes a stretch, so his attention (and yours) won’t start to wander. It’s a wonderful way to spend time bonding, and your cat will love you all the more for it.

Similarly, look for toys that imitate the fluttery or jerky movements of insects and birds. A yardstick with a length of yarn, when flicked or bobbed around, fascinates cats endlessly. But be sure to let them be the victors on occasion and latch onto the string. No one wants to be a loser all the time.

My male cat in particular really gets into his scratching post gizmo. It’s a round piece of cardboard material, and he takes to it frequently, especially if I sprinkle it with catnip. Same with catnip-filled balls, although the hazard there is that it means I often have to venture into the dark, scary underneath of my refrigerator to retrieve it.

Even little balls of scrunched-up paper make fine tools for batting around. I had a kitten once who constantly wanted to watch what happened when he carried the paper ball in his mouth and then dropped it in his water bowl. Apparently the balls were fun while they floated, but once they got waterlogged and sank they lost their appeal, and I was left to fish them back out.

Don’t forget to find a safe place for your cats to climb or hide. Most pet stores carry carpet-covered playgrounds of various sizes and designs. Cats love to tuck into small, enclosed spaces, where they feel safe. Cardboard boxes and paper grocery bags left open on the floor serve this need well, and they have the added advantage of being particularly noisy, which seems to please their furry occupants a great deal. Felines also like to sit or rest up high, where they can survey their kingdom. I’ve been caught off guard many times by my kids sitting on top of the refrigerator and bopping my head as I walked by.

Your imagination is your only limit as you find ways to keep your indoor cat amused. Perhaps you’re even thinking of another cat to keep your first one company; the Lawrence Humane Society has plenty who desperately want to go home with you. We invite you to come out to the shelter and take a look around. Our hours are on our Web site, at www.lawrencehumane.org; or you can call us 843-6835.

Oh, and by the way: Midge? I think there’s a jingly ball under the copier in the conference room.