The Lemon Fool

We have three cats, two house cats and one that is semi-feral. Yesterday morning the semi-feral one whose name is Nyoka came into the house in some distress, she was sneezing and sounded as though she had terrible catarrh, trouble was we couldn't catch her in order to give her the once over. She appeared again this afternoon and I managed to throw a towel over her and hold her down. I swear she suddenly grew another ten pairs of legs all equipped with extremely sharp claws, we finally managed to wrap her body up and leave her head in view and I noticed something sticking out of her nose. Turned out it was a piece of grass about an inch a half long. Once I'd pulled it out and made sure she was OK she took off like a bat out of hell. She appeared again and deigned to come in and actually sat on my lap, the first time she has ever done this. She didn't stay long but hopefully she'll visit more often. I've never come across this before and I sincerely hope that I don't have to wrestle with her again.

R6

Rhyd6 wrote:...She appeared again and deigned to come in and actually sat on my lap, the first time she has ever done this...

You seem to have won her undying trust, having just performed what to her must seem to be a miracle cure...

Snorvey wrote:Reminds me of Ginge. My own personal stray cat trust project.

Cats' relationship with humans should be rather less close than the "pet" story implies.

In Italy, cats are routinely wild. Or, as we would say, feral. But also capable of relating to humans. Two of them half-adopted me when I was there: Tigger was a scrawny old thing, while Deadeye was still a kitten when he first befriended me. But knowing that I was likely to move on, I wouldn't let them become reliant on me.

I always maintain that people do not own cats. Cats own people. They are very choosy about picking their servants.

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:I always maintain that people do not own cats. Cats own people. They are very choosy about picking their servants.

TJH

Dogs have masters. Cats have staff.

Nimrod103 wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:I always maintain that people do not own cats. Cats own people. They are very choosy about picking their servants.

TJH

Cats understand market forces. In a market where there are excess humans fussing over them, they will pick and choose. Where the opposite is the case they're less fussy, and if life is harder they'll be obsequious and take it from whoever they can get.

Dogs have masters. Cats have staff.

Infants have slaves, children have staff, teens have keepers.
Pigs have their peers.
Women choose their issues on which to treat us as masters vs servants ...

... I'll get me coat.