Getting in my hour of cuddles before she starts hissing. (Sarah Caton photo)
Cats are weird. I’m just going to put that out there right now, in case anyone thought that because I’m an animal lover (and a “crazy cat lady”) I have some sort of rose-colored glasses on that make me not able to see the true nature of cats.
They’re weird and they can be total jerks. The amount of videos online of cats knocking stuff off of surfaces just for fun proves my point, as these are not isolated incidents or something that I saw just one time.
Take the cat I’m watching now. She’s beautiful, she is intelligent, and when I arrive she’s happy to see me, purring and rubbing up against me, for about an hour, then she hisses at me for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow, she’ll be back to loving me, but for now, I have to steer clear. Her sister is no less odd; she runs out to see me and sniff all of my bags, and hovers close by, but she won’t let me touch her.
And then there is my cat, who absolutely insists that I get down on the floor to pet her and brush her, but after 10 minutes or so, she will try to rip off my hands if I don’t pay attention to the signs and stop before she attacks.
A couple weekends ago, I was watching five cats at once. They were no less odd. Three of them circled me like sharks whenever I had food, and even went so far as to grab my hand to direct the food from my mouth to theirs. The other two, a brother and sister, would get right in my face when they wanted attention, but would otherwise ignore me.
Don’t get me wrong; I have cats I watch who are perfect angels and never give me pause (paws?). There’s the fluffy boy I watch who wants nothing more than to be brushed and then flops down near me to sleep. There’s the kitten I watched a few days ago, who came downstairs for playtime and pets, then went back up to sleep in his room.
I never know what I’m going to get when I visit a new cat’s house. Dogs are a little more predictable: they either love me right away, or they love me once they warm up to me. There aren’t really any other options with the dogs I watch. But with cats, I take my chances. I love them all, though, quirks and claws included.
“Dogs have masters, cats have staff.” – Anonymous
(Sarah Caton owns All Paws Pet Sitting, which serves all of Lincoln County.)
