You want to hear that part first, right? Ok, so last night right before bed I’m taking a last squirt before bed, and Cuervo, the inquisitive little rescued kitten wanders over. Standing by the bowl, he wonders “hey, what’s that cool yellow string?” and gets on his back legs to swat at it. Being limited in my ability to get him to move because I was rather occupied, I was limited to verbally trying to get him to stop. Also, I was paralyzed by laughter.
After a few swats, he decides “hey, if I jump up here on this convenient little perch, I’ll have a much better shot”. After which, he jumps on the rim of the bowl. And because he has a bit of momentum, and almost falls into the bowl but catches himself, manages to get his head right square into the stream.
A smarter animal might have gotten discouraged. A smarter animal. Not our hero Cuervo. He immediately turns to face the dastardly thing which has just smacked him in the back of his head. Yes, I said face.
By this time, I was sufficiently drained to be able to swat him off the rim, and away he scampered to I don’t know, perhaps rub against my pillow or something…
I did manage to remind the wife not to pet him or rub behind his ears for the rest of the night, once I could stop the convulsive laughter.
Now here’s the thing, prior to adopting him, and prior to moving, we had three cats. Erica the 20 year old undisputed Queen, Marty, the 12 year old “good boy” and Scarlett the 5 year old female.
There was a nice balance of power, Erica did whatever she wanted, and Marty kept Scarlett in line while still trying to be "the man’. Around mid-August, Erica was put to sleep, and a few weeks later we moved into a new house. Things were topsy-turvy, in the cat balance of power for abit, then it seemed Marty had regained control. Scarlett clearly felt that she was entitled to the Diva treatment that was Erica’s, and got it so long as she didn’t mess with Marty. I should add that Scarlett is a BIG girl. fat yes, but also big. And by the way I taught her to play - rough and physical - she can handle most dogs pretty easily, let alone cats. Fearless little bitch that one is.
Then along comes Cuervo. He loves everyone, and wants to play with everything. At first Scarlett seems to tolerate him best while Marty keeps his distance. But in the last couple weeks a clear hierarchy has been established. Scarlett is clearly the Queen, bullying both Marty and Cuervo. Only at dinnertime is Marty dominant, still playing the game with me he has for years, protecting me from Scarlett while I open the can.
Any other time, both of the boys keep on eye on her all the time. Marty avoids her like the plague, and when she sees him she goes on the offensive. He holds his own pretty well, but he’s a lover not a fighter and would much prefer being petted and purring to being chased and fighting.
Poor Cuervo owns one room in the house, that’s the carpeted family room. Aside from eating and using the litter box, he seldom goes out of that room except to try and play with Marty. Marty who is now the one that will play with the little booger.
No matter what he’s doing, or where he is, if Cuervo sees Scarlett coming he runs and hides under the ottoman. If she gets half a chance she chases him and swats at him like a fly. Part of me thinks that she thinks she’s playing, since I did teach her to play kind of rough. But she scares the bejeezus out of him, she weighs about 16 pounds, and he barely 3 or 4.
He’s going to be a big boy someday from the size of his ears and paws, and one day soon he’ll realize he doesn’t need to hide from her. When that happens I imagine I’ll be doing a lot more vacumning of stray clumps of cat fur out of the carpet.
=^.^=
