Jack7
First Post
We have a new cat. She showed up a couple of weeks ago, a kitten not far past weaning. The weather turned around here a few weeks ago and although this is the most mild winter I can remember in years (thank you Global Warming) the nights have still been fairly cold. The days short, and recently windy and chill.
Now I ain't much of a cat man, being particular to dogs of the big to humongous category (I got Great Dane-Saint Bernard hybrids that I bred), but this kitten showed remarkable powers of survival, though she was thin and worn and obviously cold. I admire survival skills in any creature. And I don't like seeing anything suffer needlessly. Plus my girls took a shine to it.
It took a long time and a lot of feedings outside to get her trust. Even to come near me. She was half-feral. Squirrelly too. Maybe someone had tossed her off. Even kicked her around. Maybe she had gotten lost, though I can't find any wanted posters or local reports. No collar, no tags. We live out in the country, it's kinda common for cowards to toss off their excess animals round these parts (if that's what happened), and she had obviously been living inside big piles of brush from old trees I had cut down. God only knows what she had been living off or hunting up until recently, she was so small. Probably late to die off insects.
But eventually I gained her trust and just a few nights ago she finally allowed me to pick her up and take her in my basement. Though she was terrified.
And my dogs scared her and we're gonna have a real time with teaching my bitch to take a shine to her, though my male is fascinated by her but shows no inclination to really hurt her. Still the training is gonna havta go slow, and so far all I've really done is muzzle my dogs, let her see the cat, and get her scent and let the cat see them. Otherwise I've kept the cat in the underground level or on the second floor, the dogs on ground level. But it's gonna be a long training process I suspect. At least for the cat and my bitch. But one day at a time. That's the way you fix most things.
Anywho last night the cat spent the night in one of my daughter's rooms and landed to use the litter box after just one exposure. So she has excellent survival skills and she is obviously smart in other ways too. How smart? Well let me put it this way. All day I tried to get her out of my daughter's room and at least throughout the upper floor and into the ground floor when the dogs were out just to familiarize herself with the house.
No way. Look at it from her point of view. For the first time she can probably recall she is warm. She is safe. She sleeps in a bed. Every noise is not a potential danger. Nothing is trying to bite her, claw her, suck her blood. She isn't exposed to the elements and a lot of diseases. She isn't having to hunt down her own food. (Rough work if ya havta do it for a living, trust me.) She doesn't have to sleep in a tree at night during frigid weather, which is how I first noticed her. She was sleeping in a tree during frosts because although it was much colder than sleeping on the ground, it was also much safer. Though an alert owl or Cooper's hawk could have easily killed her.
She's smart enough to know this: the Wild, if you spend any time in it at all, or you have to live there, is a brutal and helluvah rough place. It ages you quickly. Yeah, it makes you smart, and tough, and cunning. It also makes you hungry and tired and kills you quickly. You really don't wanna live on Nature's terms if you can work a better deal.
Now don't get me wrong. I love Nature. I love the Wild. I go there often. It's beautiful. I certainly prefer it to cities, which I can't stomach for very long. And it's an absolutely excellent and fascinating place to visit. But most creatures, just like most men with any sense or real experience at it, know Nature sucks when you're really at her mercy. Not playing or pretending being at her mercy, but really being at her mercy. It's too hot, it's extremely cold, it's short of food and often safe water, it's dangerous as hell if you don't know what you're doing or stay alert, insects harass you, things bite you, it's just plain grinding work living there. This cat knows nature, and she knows nature sucks.
So when I see our new cat snuggled on my kid's bed, licking ice cream and milk, and refusing (at least for the moment) to leave my daughter's room, I think to myself, "Smart girl. You got it going on."
Now I ain't much of a cat man, being particular to dogs of the big to humongous category (I got Great Dane-Saint Bernard hybrids that I bred), but this kitten showed remarkable powers of survival, though she was thin and worn and obviously cold. I admire survival skills in any creature. And I don't like seeing anything suffer needlessly. Plus my girls took a shine to it.
It took a long time and a lot of feedings outside to get her trust. Even to come near me. She was half-feral. Squirrelly too. Maybe someone had tossed her off. Even kicked her around. Maybe she had gotten lost, though I can't find any wanted posters or local reports. No collar, no tags. We live out in the country, it's kinda common for cowards to toss off their excess animals round these parts (if that's what happened), and she had obviously been living inside big piles of brush from old trees I had cut down. God only knows what she had been living off or hunting up until recently, she was so small. Probably late to die off insects.
But eventually I gained her trust and just a few nights ago she finally allowed me to pick her up and take her in my basement. Though she was terrified.
And my dogs scared her and we're gonna have a real time with teaching my bitch to take a shine to her, though my male is fascinated by her but shows no inclination to really hurt her. Still the training is gonna havta go slow, and so far all I've really done is muzzle my dogs, let her see the cat, and get her scent and let the cat see them. Otherwise I've kept the cat in the underground level or on the second floor, the dogs on ground level. But it's gonna be a long training process I suspect. At least for the cat and my bitch. But one day at a time. That's the way you fix most things.
Anywho last night the cat spent the night in one of my daughter's rooms and landed to use the litter box after just one exposure. So she has excellent survival skills and she is obviously smart in other ways too. How smart? Well let me put it this way. All day I tried to get her out of my daughter's room and at least throughout the upper floor and into the ground floor when the dogs were out just to familiarize herself with the house.
No way. Look at it from her point of view. For the first time she can probably recall she is warm. She is safe. She sleeps in a bed. Every noise is not a potential danger. Nothing is trying to bite her, claw her, suck her blood. She isn't exposed to the elements and a lot of diseases. She isn't having to hunt down her own food. (Rough work if ya havta do it for a living, trust me.) She doesn't have to sleep in a tree at night during frigid weather, which is how I first noticed her. She was sleeping in a tree during frosts because although it was much colder than sleeping on the ground, it was also much safer. Though an alert owl or Cooper's hawk could have easily killed her.
She's smart enough to know this: the Wild, if you spend any time in it at all, or you have to live there, is a brutal and helluvah rough place. It ages you quickly. Yeah, it makes you smart, and tough, and cunning. It also makes you hungry and tired and kills you quickly. You really don't wanna live on Nature's terms if you can work a better deal.
Now don't get me wrong. I love Nature. I love the Wild. I go there often. It's beautiful. I certainly prefer it to cities, which I can't stomach for very long. And it's an absolutely excellent and fascinating place to visit. But most creatures, just like most men with any sense or real experience at it, know Nature sucks when you're really at her mercy. Not playing or pretending being at her mercy, but really being at her mercy. It's too hot, it's extremely cold, it's short of food and often safe water, it's dangerous as hell if you don't know what you're doing or stay alert, insects harass you, things bite you, it's just plain grinding work living there. This cat knows nature, and she knows nature sucks.
So when I see our new cat snuggled on my kid's bed, licking ice cream and milk, and refusing (at least for the moment) to leave my daughter's room, I think to myself, "Smart girl. You got it going on."
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