Feral Cat Fridays: Another Fluffy Day
Fluff was one of our favorite cats and she was equally popular with other cats in the colony. She even served as a Fluffy pillow for Boots, and anyone who could get along with Boots was a paragon of tolerance. If we heard cats arguing, the first thing to come out of our mouths was an automatic “Take it easy, Boots.” Fluff could calm a prickly Boots and nap at the same time.
Fluff was also a mentor to young cats. The youngsters seemed naturally attracted to Fluff and would seek her out. Fluff was happy to have the company and made good use of the time by giving lessons in how to be a cat. Sage was one of her most avid pupils, as this photo of Fluff teaching Sage to stalk illustrates. It’s worth noting that I can’t remember ever seeing Fluff successfully catch anything, but she was happy to demonstrate how she’d heard it should be done.
When Fluff had the chance to pick her friends she gravitated to the other cats most comfortable around us. She must have sensed some shared personality or temperament trait in those cats. She spent many a pleasant afternoon napping with Silver Streak and Batman, two other exceptionally friendly members of the colony.
On the other hand, it may have been Streak and Batman’s long, fluffy hair that attracted Fluff. But whether it was by personality or appearance, they were drawn together.
I could have used Fluff as a mentor. It took me longer than it should have to learn to speak a little Cat, but once I got the basics down, things improved around here.
Isn’t it interesting that ‘catnap’ has been imported into our language to describe a mostly positive human behavior, but ‘dognap’ has entirely different connotations? Fluff certainly seems to have had the catnap down pat.
Learning to speak Cat is a challenge. I feel a little more comfortable with the language after all the instructors I’ve had but something new seems to pop up every day. Living with MiniMo as my office cat has introduced me to nuances I never would have picked up on before because she brought her many years of colony life with her when she became an indoor cat. Loretta and I are both amazed that MiniMo shows no desire to go back outside. I can only assume she wants to learn more Human as she teaches us more Cat. It’s been a fair trade so far. She’s accepting more from us and we’re learning how she likes things.
MiniMo is becoming as good a catnapper as Fluff. She’s become very fond of a spot on her cat tree in a southwest facing window. The warm afternoon sun and the plush platform suit her old bones just fine. As to the difference in dognap and catnap, I can only assume the relative difficulty of a successful ransom with a cat versus a dog has something to do with the usages. An attempted catnapping has the risk of going something like O’Henry’s Ransom of Red Chief or Donald Westlake’s Jimmy the Kid. Dogs are a little more cooperative.
Your mention of that warm afternoon sun reminded me of an amusing yearly event around here. Dixie Rose loved a spot on the bedroom floor that was warmed by the sun from about November-February. After that, the sun moved on, and no longer streamed through the window. Dixie would huddle in the ever-smaller spot as long as she could, but once there was no warm spot left, it took her a couple of weeks to adjust. I’d hear her crying, go in the bedroom, and find her sitting in the spot where the sunshine “should” be, giving me an accusatory look. Try explaining to a cat that you can’t bring back the sun — at least, for a few months.
I often find myself explaining to our cats that I can’t help a cloudy day that blocks the sun through the window. I’m sure it seems to them like we control so many things in their world that we must be turning off the sun out of spite.