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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Animals in Our Lives

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

People, not everyone, tend to think that their own particular pet is an exceptional animal. This has to do with living with the animal day to day and being constantly made aware of its own particular predilections and quirks. The simple fact is that while all cats are cats, not all cats are cats. By this I mean that they are all endowed with many feline characteristics despite the best efforts of humans to breed some of those characteristics out of them, but that some will act in ways that seem "uncatlike" on the surface.

I had a cat that I sometimes believed thought he was a dog. At least he was the only cat I ever had who would voluntarily go for walks around the block with me. I do not mean that I would call him, but if I went outside to take a walk, he would come with me and walk all the way around the neighborhood with me. Stopping here and there to check on things like a dog.

My mother had a cat that considered itself a fierce a hunter . . . but this cat had no concept of keeping its mouth shut, and would meow continuously as it was stalking its prey, even if the prey was on the other side of a window. It caught a few bugs now and again, but there was not a rodent or bird in the neighborhood who had any concern about being caught by this cat. It does much to dispel the myth about cats being natural hunters. This cat was, by the way, a pure white cat (all white fur, no spots of any other color) whose name was "Inky". She was not named "Inky" to be contrary, but because "Inky" was short for "Incompetent Cat". While she would doubtless have quickly starved if she had been forced to actually rely on her own hunting skills, she was a very affectionate cat which insured her good treatment by her humans, so perhaps she was not all the incompetent.

Cats are solitary hunters, not given to cooperative ventures generally, but more than one housecat has been found to have formed a union with "the dog" in order to steal treasures (usually food) from the humans in the house. And there is a recorded case in the northeast of small numbers of housecats engaging in "pack-like" behavior to attack very small deer (perhaps there is a bit of lion in these small felines so many of us like to have around). Such behavior is very uncatlike (cooperation among cats, or between cats and dogs?), but has definitely made the deer in the area very nervous (even though I have not read of any "successful" ventures on the part of the cats).

How smart are these small predators we keep in our homes? When I went to college, I took my then cat with me. Since the rooming house I was going to be staying at was very close to a major highway, I (me) decided that my cat would not be allowed out doors. I did not want to chance his getting run down. He put up with that for about four days. On the fourth day he waited patiently until I got into bed, then went to the door of my room, sat down, unleashed a thunderous cacophony of meows. This continued until I allowed him to go out of the room. I followed him to see if there was a problem and he went straight to a door to the outside, sat down, and again unleashed the cacophony. I explained to him that this was not going to happen, and took him back upstairs. He again waited until I got in bed and . . .

There was no question that he was going to wake up everyone in the place. Begging, pleading, attempted bribes, all these availed me nothing. Finally I saw no choice but to cave in and let him outside. But I did not let him go very far, and after he had been out for a few minutes, with me close behind, I again tried to go to bed, but no sooner was I in bed then he again cut loose.

I could not have him wake everyone up, I could not send him home, and I could not stay awake with him all night myself, so I was finally forced to let him go. One of the worse moments of my life.

Four days later he came back looking perfectly happy. From that point on he came and went as he pleased, as he had done at home. Some nights he would stay with me and sleep on the bed, but it was understood that if he wanted out, I would let him out.

Yes, I had learned who was boss. There was no question that he had planned his escape from my desire to keep him safe. He has been gone from this mortal plain for more than two decades now, but I still often think of him. He was in many ways the smartest and toughest cat, but also one of the nicest cats, I have ever known.