Cat-alyst

You can't change thermodymanics - it's the law. You can, however, add a catalyst to lower the activation barrier and speed up the reaction. I've spent my career looking for new kinds of catalysts for chemical reactions.
It also works with cats. Rugrat is still playful but at age 14 the activation barriers have gotten higher, especially during the winter. I bought lots of cat toys, but she wasn't interested. She was so bored that she would yowl for attention at random times and would watch TV whenever it was on. With the advent of spring the yowling ceased but she was still bored.
With the advent of Lucy, however, that changed. At first, she just watched Lucy play and run around. After a while, though, she started to join in. Toys that were not interesting to her before suddenly became the most interesting things in the world. This led to a few skirmishes, when Lucy would chase after the toy at full speed and get a little too close for comfort. Ultimately, though, that became part of the game, and gives Rugrat an excuse to swat Lucy and chase her under the couch. Luna's more consistent with the toys - things that were interesting before are still interesting, but she too likes to chase Lucy and let her know who's boss. For her part, it's all a big game to Lucy.
Anyway, I had expected Lucy to keep Rugrat entertained, and for them to be buddies, but I hadn't expected her to be as much of a catalyst as she is.