Feline Politics

[anotherbob]

cat love bringing you little animals. Which they think are better then beer or tobacco.

 

[hauntedmyst]

I love cats. We used to have two. The first was Cloe. 100% pure cat. She was attached to me but not to my wife. I thought she was lonely being the only cat so I got her a companion, Clark (in the pic). Cloe at 11 pounds was about half the size of Clark, who weighed 18 or 19 pounds, but there was absolutely no question what so ever who was boss. She was the queen and to her, he was a commoner.

Clark was...unique. I got him from a shelter where he had been for a year and half. No one wanted him because he was fat, stank and early in life they thought he was malnourished because he when he was happy, his eye would look out in opposite directions. I was in-between business meetings at a customer in my suit. While I walked through the cat house, I noticed him but he was grungy looking and I walked right past him like everyone else. He was sitting on a shelf right at head height. Well, I turned my back and he jumped on my shoulder. It actually kind of scared me because I wasn't expecting it. He stank so I carefully put him back on the shelf and moved on. He jumped on my shoulder again! Once more I put him down and moved on. I moved to the other side of the cat house and in-between us was a dog house. He jumped off the shelf, on to the dog house and back on my shoulder! So I just held him for a while and he fell asleep in my arms and purred like a broken lawn mower. I was hooked. I called my wife and said "We gotta get this cat!" She said "No, we don't need another cat!" I said "No, you don't understand, he fell asleep in my arms and no one wants him." She said ok.

So I went to my meeting and came back and got him. I didn't have a cage with me but they had those card board cat carriers and I took him home in that. Huge mistake. Did I mention I was driving our brand new car? He peed in it and it soaked right through the box and into the carpet. I cleaned it but every time we drove that car in the rain, it smelled like cat pee from that point on. I brought him home and showed him to my wife. She was like "Oh my gawd, he stinks! You are taking him back tomorrow! But give him a bath he doesn't stink up the apartment!" I gave him three baths in a row just to get the smell off him. Then we introduced him to Cloe. She popped him good in the head a few times and then ignored him. Around 10, my wife went to bed and I finished working on the computer in the next room. Clark walked into the bedroom, jumped up on the bed and my wife yelled out "He's on the bed, come get him and leave him out there! And we're taking him back tomorrow!" I said "Yeah, yeah, just a minute, I'm finishing something." Well, Clark walked right up on her chest as she lay there, laid down, and slid into her arms like a baby. The next thing I hear is "Honey! He's sleeping in my arms! We're keeping this cat! I love him!" We had him for 18 years and he slept in her arms every night for those 18 years. I had to compete with the cat just to kiss my wife. We haven't let ourselves get another cat because we don't think one can live up to him.

 

[hauntedmyst]

A friend of mine had a cat and a large dog. He moved in with his brother, who had 2 large dogs. He planned to keep the cat in his room for awhile until everyone got used to each other.

He told me he left his room to get something and heard the dogs behind him. Realizing that he had left the bedroom door open, he rushed back to save the cat. As he got there, he saw the cat on the bed, spitting. One dog was running out the door, one was huddled in the corner of the room, and one was on its back on the floor.

It's not the size of the cat in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the cat!

About five years after we got Clark, I wanted a dog. I got a German Shepherd from the same shelter I got Clark. When I got him, Sam weighed 45 pounds and you could see nearly every bone in his body. A year later, he weighed 75 pounds and was solid muscle. He was an Alpha dog and had no fear of any other dog, even ones twice his side at the dog park. If there was a question of who was the Alpha, Sam settled in seconds. The only animal he was afraid of was Cloe, the 11 pound cat. Every time he came up stairs where she liked to sit by the railing, she'd pop him in the head and let him know who was boss.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

For much of my adult life my late wife, and now my living wife, have kept a cat or two or three. When you have two or more, you find out how intricate the politics of cats are. We had two siblings, brother, as kittens, and they were competitive, but in a brotherly way. Then my wife moved down from the north bringing her little tuxedo female who had lived in-and-outdoors her whole life, hunted and so on. The boys were rejecting. If she'd arrived months earlier, she could have raised them, but she was just an outsider. She lived to be a good 19 or 20 years old, and though she was smaller than them, when she rolled over on her side and bared her claws and teeth, they passed on aggression. When she got ill at the end, they left her alone. Now the boys are the only cats, and they have developed an intricate political vying for who sleeps and eats where, and when they feel they aren't getting their share -- food, attention, enthusiasm. We work at keeping it even, but it is political. With larger groups of cats, this gets more complicated and intense. They are like people in that way.

Your account of the little female reminded me of Kee Kee, a diminutive female that showed up at our house and stayed until she died circa 2013. The day she died she refused to stay near the wood stove with a wonderful red oak fire I had prepared for her. I found here in the winter version of the flower bed, but took her back inside, placed her in a towel lined cardboard box from which she escaped. Finally, she relented and laid on the warm concrete floor behind the old caste iron stove where she died.

 

[Grangerous]

 

[anotherbob]

We haven't let ourselves get another cat because we don't think one can live up to him.

I love cats but my first cat was the cat. He was my guy. He was an outdoor cat all the way, super hunter the scourge of little animals (cept for bunnies, one kicked him in the face and he said don't need to get any more of those bastards). I thought I'd never love another cat like Skisicks (not sure how his name is supposed to be spelled, didn't name him). My newest cat is my baby and I love that guy just as much and never thought that would happen. So I guess I am saying who knows, cats have a way of surprising you and proving your assumptions wrong. (cats hate water! Did that cat just jump into the shower to hang out yes he did. )

 

[romaso]

We haven't let ourselves get another cat because we don't think one can live up to him.

I hope you reconsider! There are lots of cats that need a good home, especially the older ones.

 

[romaso]

FYI, This is my cat's favorite video:
Videos for Cats to Watch Mice ? Mouse Extravaganza - TV for Cats - YouTube

 

[hauntedmyst]

I love cats but my first cat was the cat. He was my guy. He was an outdoor cat all the way, super hunter the scourge of little animals (cept for bunnies, one kicked him in the face and he said don't need to get any more of those bastards). I thought I'd never love another cat like Skisicks (not sure how his name is supposed to be spelled, didn't name him). My newest cat is my baby and I love that guy just as much and never thought that would happen. So I guess I am saying who knows, cats have a way of surprising you and proving your assumptions wrong. (cats hate water! Did that cat just jump into the shower to hang out yes he did. )

I hope you reconsider! There are lots of cats that need a good home, especially the older ones.

I'm getting there! I think we will just enjoy Riggs our dog for the next few years and then reconsider a cat.