Ok so here is a nicer tale, and actually a true story.
My cat (Madam Tabitha Hellbeast - See Tortishell with her beloved scarf above) was found in a dumpster at 2 weeks old. Two other kittens with her didn't make it.... :(
She was raised in a house of 5 women between the ages of 19 & 21 who did not all get along, so lets just pretend she was only slightly maladjusted.
Having not had a mother cat she was very slow to pick up some basic catlike behaviours. At 5 months old she was not grooming, so we took it upon ourselves to teach her how to groom herself. This turned out exactly as you might imagine, we would take it in turns to sit around pretending to groom ourselves around her. She picked it up in a matter of weeks and proceeded to show some chronic OCD tendencies related to this new skill.
This is just one skill I have discovered may not be instinctive behaviour and may actually be learned skill. This was however, the first she learned.
High strung, expressive and moody. She didn't meow for attention of any kind, unless someone stepped on her (by accident of course). She lived with another cat for a short period of time and worked out that bringing things to the owner was the 'cool' cat thing to do. So she started catching sticks for me. Fabulous.
So, to make a much longer story short.... nine years on, she still rarely meows, she still sleeps stretched out next to me with her head on my pillow and she will always look like she is wearing eyeliner. She has given up catching sticks and on the very odd occasion brings me live things (for which she gets roused on), she is still moody, temperamental and 100% adored.
Unknown "Shanski's Pet" Perplexed
- 16 years, 4 months, 10 days ago
