I was just suddenly and unhappily awakened by my cat, who started to howl like a sick dog. I sprang out of bed and rushed into the living room, heart pounding, very much afraid of what creative way she might have injured herself… to find her just fine, but with her paws up on the glass of the patio door, and rather a handsome black-and-white cat on the other side.
She scrabbled against the glass. She kept howling. Her tail was puffed up like a bottle brush. She rushed from window to window as the strange cat moved around in the back yard. She wouldn’t be picked up or consoled.
Yes, she is spayed.
What was happening? I got her from an animal shelter in December, and she has seemed very happy with me… but could she be so desperate for feline company that seeing another cat through the glass provokes this reaction? Does she really, really, really need a kitty companion? Or was it something else?
a puffed-up tail is a cat’s way of showing that it is terrified and afraid of being attacked.(The fur stands up to make the cat appear larger and more intimidating.)
It is the exact opposite of “wanting feline company”.
That’s good news! Most cats are really territorial and mean to unfamiliar kitties. If you ever do get a companion for [insert kitty name here] (she’s gorgeous btw!), you will probably have to take it really slow, and introduce them the other side of a shut door for several days.
Most cats have a distinct vocabulary, that you will learn over the years. Cookie also howls when she wants to go in the spare room - that particular door and no other; and she has several different meows and purrs - “brrp?” is “hello”, "“bip bup beew” is “I’m having fun”, “meeeeeeu!” is “I’m not having fun any more”, “weeee-ooooo” is “it’s not fair”, “waaaw” is “hungry” (I hear this a lot), “chakata chakata chakata” is “there’s a bird in the garden and I can’t get it”, and “wrrrooooooaaaauuu” is “get out of my fucking garden, bitch” to another cat.
Female cat? Yep, probably territorial, especially if you saw another cat at that moment.
Alternately, my previous female would occasionally let off a howl like Death itself at about 5:30am. I think she was just lonely and her human was sleeping. Took a bit to break her of that habit, as she’d sometimes get up on the bed and do it by my head, waking me up and freaking the shit out of me at the same time. (Can you say “SMACK!”? Can you visualize thrown objects?)
Pudding. Her name is Pudding. And yep, she’s a real looker. She is white and chocolate brown, not tabby brown, but pure chocolate brown with colorpoint tendencies. Her eye is robins-egg blue. I fell in love with her picture on the humane society’s website, and had to get right in my car and adopt her.
