|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We always thought of ourselves as dog people. Cats are boring we'd say. We'd walk around the neighborhood carrying dog biscuits, feed the neighbor's dogs, and they'd follow us around like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. One of them in particular, an Australian shephard named Tux, pretty much decided to spend most of his time with us. The reason Tux decided to move is that his owner, a very nice young man, entered high-school and thus was not as available to play as Toli, who works from home (often outdoors). But we digress... |
|
|
|
Our life was mostly dogs. Until one day in May 2001, when Toli went to a neighborhood meeting, and a neighbor asked whether anybody can offer a home for an outdoor cat. We thought about it, and decided sure, we can save a life if all it means is leaving some food outside. And so Pascal joined us. And soon we realized the key difference between cats and dogs: |
|
Cat: Meow, wow... you pet me, you bring me food every day, I must be a god. |
|
To make a long story short, Pascal soon moved in: first into the laundry room only, and just on cold nights. But she'd meow endlessly to be let into the kitchen; still, we held on. Until one day, when we had not latched the door closed... we saw a hairy leg sneak under the door and pull it open. Pascal triumphantly strutted into the kitchen and so we gave in. |
|
Now that Pascal was in the kitchen, we tried to contain her away from carpeted areas with a chicken wire fence Toli put up. It turned out that his Stanford degree is worthless relative to Pascal's intelligence and independent spirit: she found all sorts of ways to get past it... |
|
|
|
The bedroom, office, and essentially the rest of our house followed, and eventually our hearts as well. We were totally stricken by her intelligence even though she is the most feral of our cats and doesn't like being handled much. Pascal became an indoor/outdoor cat, who is also the boss of Tux. So now we were dog/cat people. |
|
|
|
As time passed, we realized that Pascal might want some company. Or, rather, we realized that, when Pascal was outside chasing lizards, we needed company. So we looked for another cat. Having gotten used to being abused by Pascal, we figured that we can happily deal with another wild-ish cat. In late February 2002, we found a cat that seemed like a great match: a research lab alumna. Unfortunately, PERL's adoption had to be delayed for a whole year because she had to finish up some projects at work. |
|
While we waited, though, in September 2002, we got SeQueL. SeQueL was an accident, but she is loved no less than our intentional children. For about a year, we had been seeing a beautiful calico feral cat in the neighborhood. We had assumed she was an abandoned house cat, and therefore spayed. Until one day, we saw that cat with a little ball of black fur wobbling behind her. So we set out a trap to catch her, and get her spayed. What did we catch? The furball. The mom is still running loose to this day. |
|
SeQueL was only 5-6 weeks old when we found her. We took care of her health and vaccinations, and soon enough she was healthy and gradually recovering from malnutrition. The furball became a furry tummy with huge ears, then the gremlin's legs stabilized, then she morphed into a playful kitten, and eventually into a cat. In short, she was a hairy potato whose parts gradually grew out to make Mrs. Potato Head. |
|
SeQueL's primary companion during her first few days at home was Toli, so she imprinted on him. She purrs very loudly when he pets her, and she loves nuzzling up to him and side swiping his nose with hers. She also loves to lie down in front of him with her butt raised and towards Toli, expecting to be inspected for thorough cleanliness. The primary indicator of their close bond is that SeQueL's favorite treat is kasseri cheese, followed by vanilla bean ice cream: in fact, when she climbed onto our dinner table while we were having fish tacos, SeQueL went right for... the cheese leaving the fish untouched. |
|
SeQueL is much more cuddly than Pascal although there is still some feral in her: she will nip and scratch when feeling threatened. In fact, SeQueL is afraid of everything. When anything unfamiliar shows up, she will waddle away from it and hide. If that something is alive and approaches her, she will open her mouth and say ah as if she were keeping her front paws warm on a cold day. No hissing, no aggression, just ah. This is known as the bad breath defense, yet another indicator she and Toli have bonded way too much. |
|
Actually, SeQueL is not afraid of everything. There is one thing that doesn't scare her at all: Pascal. Go figure. Pascal is very territorial, and not at all social: if Pascal had her own country, she'd be Chairman Meow. Yet SeQueL will stalk her, box with her (and lose before round 0.001 is over), try to nibble at her food, and in all other ways she'll be in her face. There is no active aggression on either side: SeQueL is always playful, Pascal is never interested in games. So they just don't get along despite our efforts to acquaint them gradually, use treats, etc. |
|
The unfortunate side effect of SeQueL's introduction is that Pascal started having tantrums in the house. She'd chase her tail and hiss at nobody: just the smell of SeQueL around was bad enough. Eventually, we isolated them... what chicken wire couldn't do, SeQueL did. Pascal spends the days outside and, in exchange, she is our sole companion in bed. The cats are both very happy with this arrangement and so are we. |
|
|
|
You've probably forgotten about PERL by now. So did we. In January 2003, we got the good news that PERL had finished her research, got her PhD (Pheline Doctorate) and was ready to join us. So she did. |
|
PERL is the oldest member of our household, born 4/28/96. As we wrote earlier, we expected PERL to have some emotional scars from her past life and be slightly wild-ish. And so, as cats are totally contrarian to human expectations, PERL turned out to be the friendliest, most social cat in our household. She loves people, she never nips, and she likes other cats. PERL loves spending the days by Toli's side while he works on the computer, occasionally waking up to seek attention: this involves the demand that her tummy be rubbed, to which she responds with purring and plenty of head rubbing. The trick in these activities is to avoid her claws which, in her Dionysiac frenzy of happiness, are fully exposed with her legs facing upwards. |
|
Pascal met PERL and, of course, didn't like her. In fact, when we went on a trip once, our petsitter accidentally placed Pascal, SeQueL and PERL all in the same room for one day. When we returned, Pascal was scratching on the door to get out; and, on the wall next to the door, small blood spots had dried out as Pascal was chasing and biting her own tail. That mistake was not repeated again: some cats are just solitary. |
|
On the other hand, when PERL joined us, SeQueL was young enough that she was able to adapt to PERL's presence very quickly. They now sleep next to each other. They also play together a lot: SeQueL teases PERL in one way or another until PERL gets up and chases SeQueL all around the house. There is never any violence, but there sure is a lot of noise. And plenty of jealousy when petting time comes about: PERL usually pushes SeQueL out of the way, and so SeQueL takes her revenge at treat time when she pushes PERL out of the way and gets to the food first. But when it comes time to chasing the feather toy, they take turns... cats are absolutely inscrutable. |
|
|
|
...life moves on, and we no longer think of ourselves as dog/cat people. We are cat servants, and that's about it. |
|
|
|
|
© 1995-2024 Apostolos & Christine Lerios |