Thursday, February 09, 2006

Caught in a world of Cat

Our world has adapted to little Minh like currents redirect their flows and eddies around a boulder that lands in a stream. The world stops, and starts, for her; she is a princess.

No doubt it's only a matter of time before she insists on taking over when I'm on blogger.

Chairman Mao still has some hierarchy issues, is still coming to terms with the fact that his days as head cat are numbered, there's a female in the household. I try giving him guidance, assuring him that we all go through it, learn to adjust to our new place.

He talks less, needs less. But seems calmer than before, content, a warmer uncomplicated affection. Yesterday I came home late and I saw him through the window next to the door, sprinting across the room at the sound of my footsteps.

It's these unforced moments we cat owners live for.

I've started calling him Herbert, the name of my old cat in Darwin, by mistake. I'm not sure at all what this means. Herbert also had a smaller, upstart companion, perhaps that's it.

Minh; min-min kit-kit; sweetheart; is hilarious, slightly mad. She runs so fast it is hard to track her across the room with your eyes. He chases her around, inspired to new levels of athleticism himself- last night he leapt about 2 metres through the air from couch to couch.

Minh has rueful eyes that she uses to melt a simian at 5 yards.

I worry, though it's mostly play, that she experiences too much being chased and rough play at this age, Mao is now a pretty big, strong cat. I intervene sometimes, I worry about the times I'm not there.

She's certainly going to be tougher than him in a few months, she's already learned some pretty impressive techniques. The other day he was trying to bite her midsection, had got hold of a pinch of skin, and she did multiple double-hindkicks of death into his face.

Hell hath no fury, he'll learn!

22 comments:

obtuse-a said...

Mrs Slocombe references aside: favourite pusska move is the Octopus, when little kitties freeze up their limbs and dance sideways. oh, those were the days.

Armagnac Esq said...

Splatts, your name is all the answer I need to your assertion!


Jaded, I know the one you mean- the bouncing crab thingy; minh used that to particularly good effect when she first arrived and mao was doing his exorcist impersonation.

The Daily Magnet said...

Ahhhh, just the mention of Mao warms m'cockles. I took Stir-Fry & Middy for a lovely drive up to the farm the other day, where they can strutt around the paddocks with the g-g's and poo in a field instead of on my 'Time' collection.

lucy tartan said...

My cat still does that sideways requiring exorcism thing and he's four. Increasingly I feel mean / abusive keeping one cat alone, he's obviously a bit bored.

Jess said...

So wait wait wait... I'm a little confused on an important issue (although it's very late so I may have missed the part where the following point was clarified...)

.... is this new cat going to start a blog? The public needs to know.

Armagnac Esq said...

There's a rumour that Mao is currently showing her how to use blogger... keep an eye on burmesecat.blogspot...

Zoe said...

Yeah, but can she catch mice?

hazelblackberry said...

"Multiple hind-kicks of death" - we call that The Thumper.

Anonymous said...

The Only Good Cat Is A Flat Cat

Cats are specialised hunters that feed only on meat. Their bodies are highly adapted for detecting, hunting and killing their prey. Cats do not chase their prey over long distances — if the hunt is unsuccessful, they will soon stop and save their energy.

An introduced species, the cat has no predators in Australia. The household, domestic cat is usually left free to roam the suburbs seeking out and killing birds, lizards, small native mammals and anything else suitable it can find. Not that most need to. It's just something they do to keep amused.

While the suburban cat is damaging enough, it's nothing compared to the capabilities of the feral cats found throughout the Australian bush. These specialised killing machines wreak severe damage on the Australian native fauna. More damage than other introduced species like foxes, cane toads and wild dogs.

Sure we often hear about the damage the rabbit does. Only because it effects the land and farm incomes. But the cat does more damage to our native wildlife than anything else. As Dr John Wamsley from Earth Sanctuaries Ltd puts it, “Owning a cat in Australia is the single most damaging environmental thing an Australian can do.”

Of course, the vast majority of Australians living in the suburbs see nothing wrong with letting the cat remain a totally uncontrolled killer in our midst. They won't agree to cat owners being forced to license and control their pets the way dog owners have to. Most cat owners don't keep their cats inside at night. Nor do they get them desexed. And so the cat population continues to grow and the massacre of our unique native Australian wildlife continues.


Dr John Wamsley,
Earth Sanctuaries Ltd
As Dr John Wamsley says, “Australia has the worst record in the world for wildlife management. We're extincting species more quickly than the rest of the world put together.”

It's strange that Dr John Wamsley gets more recognition for being outspoken against cats and wearing a cat skin as a hat than for the magnificent work he has done in saving Australian wildlife species. But I guess it helps to get the message across and make people think.

Some neighbours got the message when they culled the population of twenty or so cats around their farm house. Within a year they noticed that the bird population in their area had significantly increased. What probably went unnoticed was a similar increase in other small native wildlife species.

What can you do? Well as John has said, “Do your bit for the environment. Go home and hat your cat tonight.”

lucy tartan said...

anonymous,
I know you are but what am I?

Armagnac Esq said...

Anonymous, I will leave your comment standing against my better instincts as proof of why so many environmentalists are their worst enemies.

My cats are both indoor cats, in part for this reason.

So what's your point? Fool.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

My two cats also live inside, also partly for this reason. Can't much see the point of unsigned self-righteous extremism, Anon; why should we listen to an unnamed voice? If you feel passionately enough about this point of view to go cluttering up other people's blogs with it then you could at least sign your name, don't you think?

JahTeh said...

I can barely get my cat out of the house with a crowbar. He was a boofheaded feral stray who must have killed to survive but once neutered he never bothered again. Put to the test, he probably could savage a can to death.

lucy tartan said...

Either anon up there is Lloyd from here, http://www.borrett.id.au/weirdmob/cats.htm , or else anon cut n'pasted from Lloyd's blog.

oh well.

R.H. said...

Dr John Wamsley's photo is on the wall of a very cheap Braybrook brothel - a rat-head in a cat-hat - just as a reminder that pimps like to dress up.

phil said...

anybody who uses 'extincting' as a verb probably deserves the multiple double hindkicks of death himself. just sayin'.

R.H. said...

Anon (you poor creature) of course cats kill birds. And birds kill worms. And worms enrich soil.
And elderly people keep cats as companions, and then some dirty little accountant like you pipes up and says destroy them all.
Why? Because you're destroyed already.
Emotionally dead.

The Daily Magnet said...

Now, now - he's just complaining about cats, now if it were dogs that would be a different matter. My dogs were natural predators of cats, and cars are natural predators of cats - I am sure I can think of more holes in anon's argument.
Fathead aka Stirfry & Middy are small enough that they would have many natural predators, especially after they pee on your newspaper(not that The Werst is fit for much else - quite astute really come to think of it, but nobody said cats were dumb - just annoying). Thank goodness it's the year of the dog at last.

R.H. said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
R.H. said...

Let's just say, cats are a fact.

And thank you, Mr Magnet.

The Daily Magnet said...

That'll be Ms Magnet to you, rh.

R.H. said...

I should have known.