“If animals could speak the dog would be a a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.” ~ Mark Twain
Our Pet Cat .... just kidding! via Chris Jones
Our Pet Cat: Tangy’s Tendencies…
We love our family cat, Tangy, not only because we got him from an animal shelter but especially because he is a very playful and loving cat. He’s an American short hair cat; ginger orange in color, has a good disposition and a tendency to snooze … a lot. He doesn’t fit the stereotype people often have about cats; he’s not aloof, territorial or even aggressive. I chuckle as I write this because whatever aggressive tendencies he might have lingering somewhere in his body has been taken out on our living room furniture…
I wrote about Tangy’s story last year and he has grown into quite the personality since then. We have had Tangy for about 4-5 years and during the summer seasons, noticed that Tangy tends to nap more during the day. It must have something to do with the languid, summer days that make a house cat yawn and curl up on the sofa. He takes several naps throughout the day and then perks up around 8pm, ready to rock and roll, and run around playfully engaging everyone in his antics. We are fine with what I just described. But occasionally, it shifts once bedtime time rolls around and we want to call it a day.
“Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia.” ~Joseph Wood Krutch
Tangy: Our Cat in Repose
Tangy sleeps in the living room; he has a cat bed even though he sometimes prefers to stretch out on the sofa or the dining table at nighttime. Once we turn in for the night, he waits for a few minutes and then starts his door scratching routine. He goes from bedroom door to bedroom room door scratching and thumping on the door till we shoo him away. He dashes down the hallway back to his quarters and after about 30 minutes or so, he tries his little game again. He does this a few times or until one of us comes out and settles him back in his space where he spends time playing with his imaginary friends.
When he is in a particularly playful mood, he will try this stunt a few more times and run at top speed down the hallway when one of us opens a door or comes out of our bedroom. For him, it is all about playing and the late hour is irrelevant. For us, it can be wearing especially after a long and hectic day. I’ve often wondered if others have cats who do this because my friends with cats don’t always see the same behavior in their cats.
Another thing he does is to shove rubber bands under the sofa or under the hallway door, and then wait for one of us to retrieve them for him. We often catch him pawing away at the sofa or hallway door trying to reach the now hidden rubber bands as if, by pawing, they would fly back to him… Don’t ask, but for some reason, he loves playing with rubber bands … not the colorful ones, but the standard issue brown ones that come wrapped around some of the mail our mailman delivers. We play along with him but, sometimes, I wonder why he paws the closed hallway door to get a band that has fallen down several steps.
“What greater gift than the love of a cat?” ~ Charles Dickens
Our Pet Cat Tangy... in his element
When I first read the assignment above, I thought “Hmm, how do you look for unlikable qualities in a pet?” Our pets give us love without much debate and when we don’t honor a request to play or feed them extra food or let them terrorize another stuffed rabbit, they whine or pout and glare and then all is okay once a new distraction is introduced.
I asked my kids and they simply said, “Tangy has no faults. Humans have faults and look for them in each other…” Oh, the wisdom of children! I had to look at the exercise through a new set of lenses. I decided my focus won’t be about likable/dis-likable qualities but more on what he does that isn’t part of his typical daily routine.
Recently, I playfully informed Tangy that I will take him to a psychic pet channeler/reader and he stared at me and walked off. He sat on the rocking chair and rocking back and forth, fixed his eyes on me as if trying to tell me something. When I said I wont do it after all, he yawned, got off the rocking chair and sat next to me on the sofa. Ah, what a smart cat. He must be psychic too. LOL!
We can definitely learn a lot about freedom and playfulness from our pets. Even when we find some of their behavior tiring, they see it all as play. What can we learn from this? Your thoughts? Thank you!
PHOTO CREDITS:
Photo of African Lion by Chris Jones via NatGeo ~ courtesy of National Geographic
Photos of Tangy from my collection
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
