Taking Orders From a Cat

Discussion in 'Pets & Critters' started by Ken Anderson, Mar 8, 2015.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I have three cats. Two of them are sisters, who have been with me since they were born 24 years ago. One of them tends to get sick, and vomits sometimes. Another, and I haven't figured out which yet, sometimes pees on a rug outside of my office door. Neither of them have made a habit of doing this so I attribute it to some malady of old age.

    Ella, my third cat, is just over a year old, and she makes it her business to tell on the others, by making exaggerated digging motions in the area of where one of them has either peed or vomited. She uses that same gesture to let me know when she doesn't like whatever food I have given her, scratching alongside the bowl as if to cover it up.

    I have four litter boxes, which I clean every morning. While I am cleaning the first one, Ella will dig along side the next one, as if I needed her to tell me that that one needs to be emptied too, then she'll move on to the third, and if she doesn't think I've done a good enough of a job on any of them, she'll let me know about that as well.

    This morning, she was making digging motions alongside the rug outside my door, so I thought that one of them must have soiled it during the night. I couldn't smell anything though, so I left it. Ella persisted with her digging motions so I finally had to wash the rug and mop the floor. I don't know why she doesn't go to my wife with this stuff.
     
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  2. Peter Remington

    Peter Remington Veteran Member
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    Ah, yes, cats DO run a tight ship, don't they?!

    I have Simon who refuses to drink water out of his bowl. Instead, he stands by the kitchen sink and yowls until I go in and turn the faucet on for him. Neither have I been able to get him to turn it off when he's done, so I have to stand there and wait for him to finish drinking.

    I also have Selena, who upends the food and water bowls whenever she thinks they should be freshened and Lily, who insists upon sleeping on my arthritic hip the entire night and tips down the computer monitor when she wants my attention.

    They let you know if they don't like you, too! Like the time that I brought a new girlfriend home to 'meet the kids' and Lucy promptly jumped into her lap and pooped on her. And anytime this woman brought anything of hers over and left it here, Lucy would make sure she peed on it copiously at her earliest opportunity. Call me slow on the uptake but, despite the clear messages from the cats, I even had the woman living here briefly whence my fur babies commenced a coordinated campaign of completely eschewing the use of the litter boxes in favor of the middle of the living room carpet, which lasted until the interloper moved out again. I'm STILL trying to get the stain out!

    And don't try to eat anything at my house without giving each of them a generous share. Chicken, beef, deviled ham, mac & cheese, pizza ... if it's good enough for me to eat, they want some too.
     
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  3. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    @Ken
    @Peter Remington

    I don't know why you're making such a fuss. They are FEMALEs with to-do lists.;)
     
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  4. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    It's not just cats. When my husband and I first got married, we bought this lovely cottage in Annapolis on 5 acres. It came with a flock of chickens and this beautiful Canada goose, named Rufus. Rufus would follow us around the yard like a dog. He had such a wonderful personality. Anyway, at the time, I had a new, shiny black Corvette and each evening when I got home from work, Rufus would waddle out and walk around the car, as if inspecting it. He could see his reflection in the car and he would preen in front of it. Well, about a year later, I was in a bad accident and the Corvette was basically totaled. Since I wanted to talk to my insurance agent before taking it to a shop, I had the car towed home. The only part on the car that wasn't damaged was the t-top. Anyway, when Rufus saw the car, he came running out at full speed, squawking and flapping his wings. He was ticked! :mad: The next morning, I went outside and saw that he had jumped up on the truck and pooped all over it. He had also pulled every bit of wiring and loose fiber glass off that he could get to. I felt so sorry for him - of course, I felt sorrier for myself.
     
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  5. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    @Ken Anderson, this wouldn't, by any chance, be one of your cats?

    cat 2.jpg
     
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Cutie and Lydia were about ten when I was married, so they had been just with me for the first ten years of their lives. Their mom, Baby Girl, was also with us at that time. Jack the Ripper could have moved in and Baby Girl would have sat on his lap, but neither Cutie or Lydia were pleased when I brought a woman home. They nicely ignored her while she was visiting, but when we were married and she moved in, Lydia began a concerted attack.

    My wife got up from the couch to go into the kitchen, and came back to find that Lydia had crapped where she had been sitting, and up until then I had had no out-of-the-litter-box incidents with any of them. She crapped in her purse and we got up one morning to find that she had crapped outside the bedroom door. Afraid that we'd wake up to find that she had crapped in the bed, I had closed the bedroom door to them, and none of them were happy about that. Lydia kept it up for months before giving it up but, fifteen years later, she still won't let my wife touch her, and hisses at her when she comes into my office if I'm not there.

    Lydia's sister, Cutie, was more passive-aggressive about it. She would get between us on the couch and push on Michelle with her legs, trying to get her to move further away from me. When I started letting them in the bedroom again, she'd insist on sleeping between us in the bed and if Michelle got up during the night, she'd spread out to take up as much of the bed as possible. She has since become friendly enough with her, though, and even elects to sleep in my wife's office sometimes. I strongly suspect it's the south-facing window in her office that she's after but still, her sister would never do that.
     
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  7. Priscilla King

    Priscilla King Veteran Member
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    My late lamented Bisquit used the "bury this" gesture for anything she didn't like, too. When she'd misbehaved and been sent to "Cat Jail" for a few hours, she knew how the door actually locked/unlocked but couldn't quite manage to let herself out...so instead of trying to open the door, when a human approached, she would paw at the floor of the cage. "Bury this cage!"

    Ivy is Bisquit's daughter, and Heather and Irene are Bisquit's granddaughters. They're all quite efficient communicators but so far none of them has used "bury this."
     
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  8. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    Cats are so interesting. We had a cat many years ago that attached herself to my first grandson. When I would stay over to watch Matthew the grandson she would like at me like I was a stranger, now this is a cat that has been in the family since she was born. Her look said "I am watching you".
     
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  9. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I didn't let the cats into my computer room in the 1980-1990s because I ran a computer BBS from home and a cat sitting on the keyboard would crash it. One day I had an ironing board leaning up against the wall by the door to the computer room, and I caught Baby Girl on top of the ironing board, leaning over to the door knob, with both paws on the knob, trying to turn it. She had figured out how it worked but that damned lack of opposable thumbs was keeping her from being able to turn the knob. She also had a habit of slamming up against any closed door, knowing that sometimes they might not be latched firmly.
     
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  10. Michelle Stevens

    Michelle Stevens Veteran Member
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    I don't have any cat stories, but I do have one about a dog I had many years ago.

    As we didn't have a secluded garden, I couldn't take him outside while I was in my pyjamas, so he had to wait patiently until I was dressed. He obviously understood the situation well because as soon as I had my outdoor clothes on he would get extremely excited and there was no peace until I took him outside. As I wanted to put on the little make-up I wore before going outside, it was essential that I did my make-up before changing into my clothes.

    That dog died a long time ago, but to this day I still do my make-up before I get dressed.
     
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  11. Hannah Davis

    Hannah Davis Veteran Member
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    Cats can be demanding creatures can't they? Don't get me wrong I love my cats but they do let it be known when they want something. For that matter so do my two dogs. Its funny how animals have their own way of letting you know what they want and when they want it sometimes its a meow or a bark other times it could be something else such as brushing against you or against something else ot make their point be known.
     
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  12. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    I have a dog story, too. When I was a teenager, I "adopted" a springer spaniel who had been abused. It took awhile to gain her trust, but evidently I was able to. Anyway, I would let her sleep in the bed with me every night. She was a great sleeping companion, she always stayed on her side of the bed, and never woke me up.

    About a year later, we had an uncle come stay for a couple of days, and he stayed in my room. Well, the next morning he got up and complained that Patches had kicked him, and shoved him and whined all night long.

    "How does she put up with her?" he asked. I told him it was really strange, that never happened to me. Then my Mom asked, "What side of the bed where you on?". Come to find out, he was sleeping on her side of the bed, and she was not pleased. :confused: The next night he slept on the correct side of the bed, and had no problems!
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Since I started this thread, more than three years ago, one of the sisters (Lydia) is no longer with me. Cutie is doing reasonably well for her age, considering that she'd be well over a hundred years old if she were a human being. She no longer pees on the rug; that was apparently a phase she was going through, or there was something going on that she was trying to communicate to me.

    Ella, who is about five now, lets Cutie be the boss, which I really appreciate. Being the alpha female has always been important to Cutie and, although she certainly couldn't defend the position at this point in her life (with arthritis, a heart murmur, kidney troubles, and complete deafness), Ella defers to her most of the time, and I think that's pretty nice of her. They play together, and they fight sometimes, but no one gets hurt.

    So while Ella, lets Cutie boss her around, she bosses me around. In order to encourage her to come in when she's outdoors and I call her, I usually give her a treat when she gets in. That has become an entitlement. Then she tries to add other things to it. Somehow, she has determined that if I sing, I have to give her a treat. I would think that having me sing to her would be a treat in itself but no, she wants a treat. Whistling counts as singing, I guess, because she demands a treat when I whistle too, and she tries demanding a treat if someone on television whistles. If I were to binge-watch the Andy Griffith Show, it would cost me a fortune in treats.
     
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  14. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    Gosh, your singing must be really awful, Ken. :D
     
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  15. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Cats are just awful music critics. Except for Cutie; she doesn't mind my singing.
     
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