If there's one thing I can relate to, yet still don't completely understand, it's the house cat. I understand the independence thing probably way too well, and the insouciance, which is just a nice way of saying "smartass." I even get the cat box thing. However, I draw the line at puking hairballs and eating paper.I have several house cats, some of whom are feral. I won't divulge the number, as it is truly embarrassing. However, here's a hint: everywhere I've lived, people have dumped cats on my doorstep and every feral cat in my neighborhood has found me like I was a catnip magnet.
One of my cats, who is named after a McDonald's snack (no, it's not Nugget), has suddenly decided to change her life. She was the queen of what I call the "upstairs cats" for a long time. She herded them, took care of them, cuddled with them, groomed them and ran to the top of the stairs to squawk when the feeder or water tubs got low. She was a very conscientious cat.
This summer, she suddenly retired to a cubby hole under the stairs, abandoning her charges upstairs, and just chilled out. No, she was not sick. The upstairs cats were totally baffled and confused. She hid under the stairs for a couple of months, only sneaking out for food, water, and the catbox.
Last week, she sauntered out of the cubby hole and decided to take on the downstairs cats and the dogs. Well, this was just unheard of. A rebel? The downstairs cats are resentful. One dog wants to bathe her in slobber. The other dog doesn't give a shit, she's not kibble.
Now she is prancing on the kitchen counters (NO! isn't working so far), rearranging the dirty laundry in the baskets by the washer, checking out my computer chair, reclining on TV tops for warmth, and generally settling in and establishing her territory downstairs.
I wonder ... is this the feline equivalent of mid-life crisis?
2 comments:
Wasn't pregnant?
Did the downstairs cats have a "den mother"? Maybe she decided they needed one.
Maybe she got tired of none of the upstairs cats "stepping up" responsibility-wise, and decided to see if there was hope in the downstairs cats.
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Growing up, we had a feral "barn" cat. It would let us pet it if it was eating food we had left for it, but only the person who left the food. It was always interesting to see where the barn birds would build their nest so the cat wouldn't get the chicks ... and if she figured a way to get them anyway. My brother and I soon learned not to go near her kittens, 'cause she would abandon them if we did ... which pretty much meant they'd die. But she did a great job of keeping the gopher/mole/mouse populations down.
Walt ...
Nope, she's not pregnant, she was "fixed" years and years ago. Downstairs cats don't need a den mother, either. I guess she just got tired of being "mommy" to a bunch of 4 year old feral cats.
Know what you mean about the barn cat. We had a feral cat in the neighborhood where we used to live, and she hung out by the front door where I fed her. But she would bring her kittens to us to adopt. She let us pet them and pick them up, and sure enough, we'd get hooked, and adopt them when they were old enough to be away from her. Several we were not able to save from maruauding dogs, but we did the best we could.
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