All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. George Orwell

Another slow, or rather uneventful, week in the cattery. The only noteworthy event is that I no longer have to feed Kismet separately from the other canned food tigers, Ptah and Tama-chan. I’ve wanted to see just how much she ate and unless I stayed in the room with all 3 I could never be sure who was eating what. That added about 45 minutes to feeding time, which is an hour or more, depending on how closely I’m watching the clock. Last Sunday evening I decided I’d stay in the room with all 3 to see for myself. Once they’d eaten their initial fill they settled down to the normal bowl switching routine but didn’t bother eating from any other bowl but theirs. They’d sniff another bowl then just go back to their own. Cool. Takes almost 2 hours off the daily feeding time. Kismet’s weight is steady, although I’d like to put another half pound on her eventually. She gets an extra feeding at noon if she asks for it, which she usually does.

A lady friend took me to a late dinner last night and afterward we were sitting around and the subject of adoption came up. Somehow we ended up talking about people who adopted animals they had no business adopting. People who live in small apartments adopting a Great Dane puppy kinda stuff. One of my tigers fits the category to a tee. Feurae was adopted by a couple at the age of 8 weeks. Five years later I adopted him from my vet. Ya know, I’ve even blocked what his former name was. All I know about the couple who originally adopted Feurae is that the man was 90 years old when they adopted him, making him 95 when they brought him in to be euthanized. His offense? He bit the man seriously enough that he ended up in the ER to treat the wound(s). I don’t know when they had him declawed, on all 4 paws, but that left Feurae only his teeth to defend himself. For the longest time I couldn’t approach Feurae with a hand from the front. He shied away. I wonder what his previous guardians did with their hands to make him that jumpy. He isn’t any more and I’m sure glad of that. It took 4-5 months for him to realize that hands were for loving but he never once tried to bite me. Why would a couple in their 90s adopt an animal with a lifespan of 15+ years? I dunno.

Last night was also interesting in another way. I don’t get a lot of visitors and when I do the tigers head for the bedroom. Nancy hadn’t been here 5 minutes when Nagi, of course, was rubbing up against her leg and trying to strangle himself with her purse strap. Feurae was next, treating her like he’d known her all his life. Maste was on an end table and just watched from a distance. After a bit Tama-chan came out and jumped onto the table and laid down in front of me. He let Nancy stroke him but he wasn’t movin’. Then Skoshi came out and laid down under the coffee table, putting her front paws out so we could see her catcher’s mitts. Bapu made a couple forays out of the bedroom but scooted back in as soon as he spotted Nancy, so she only got a glimpse. Igraine came out, stood about 6 feet away, hissed at Nancy, then wandered around the room but wouldn’t come close. Ptah came out and walked around the tops of the couches. Kismet finally decided she wanted to see what was going on and came out, ending up purring and looking for more pets. So Nancy got to see most of them. Shiimsa and Gabby, brothers who are like 2 peas in a pod behaviourwise, are just not going to be exposed to strangers and Brutus was nowhere to be found. They wandered out after Nancy had gone. Brutus is losing his shyness along with the extra ounces.

This one’s for foothillsmike and any others experiencing the early blizzards.

That’s all I’ve got this week. What’s happened in your cattery lately?

Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission…the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance. Saki