This is an old post, but I thought that "in the spirit of the season" (Halloween), you may want to read something just for fun!
 |
| Penelope |
Today’s adventure isn’t really an adventure. It is more a story of a silly old cat that I have. She is a rescue cat, but she was quite old when we got her in 2014. We guesstimate that she is probably about 15 or 16 years old. Of course, that is not the amazing stuff about her.
We really don’t know where she came from or what type of life she led before she came to us, but she came with a lot of goofy habits.
The first thing that we noticed was that she was absolutely terrified by plastic bags! If you crinkle one within a 20-foot radius of her, she bolts upright and runs for cover under one of the beds and stays hidden for about 30 minutes until she is sure that bag is gone. We don’t know if she was somehow terrorized with a plastic bag—like someone stuck her in one to try to get rid of her or something like that. The good news is that over the last two years that she has lived with us, she is starting to realize that we aren’t going to hurt her with a bag. She doesn’t startle quite as easily anymore when you bring one out.
Another odd-ball thing that Penelope does is that every time she uses her litter box, she trots over to where her water dish is (about 3 feet from her litter box), and washes off her paws. We change her water about 3 or 4 times a day because there are always little clumps of clay in the bottom of the dish. Once she has done this, she won’t drink out of the “finger bowl”, so she has located other sources of drinking water in other areas of the house.
 |
| Where did all that water go? |
Now where might those be, you ask? Well, her favorite place to drink is out of the little trough in the shower door in my mother’s bathroom. She waits outside the bathroom door until you are finished with your shower. Then as soon as the water goes off, she bee-lines it straight to the shower door to drink all the water out of the door trough. Or, she just climbs in and tries to catch the water going down the drain!
Generally, I wash my hair in my mom’s shower because there is better water pressure, so my hair rinses out a lot faster. However, it really freaks her out when I go and shower in the other bathroom. She will sit in my mom’s doorway, looking absolutely befuddled because she can’t figure out why there is no water in the door. I just say to her “Penelope, Mommy took her shower in the other bathroom today. You’ll have to go find water somewhere else today.” She just almost shrugs (as if a cat could), but that is exactly what the look on her face says! Once she “shrugs”, she just pads off into the other bathroom, seeking water there.
 |
| Cool and fresh--just the way I like it |
Now, there are a couple of other ways she finds water in the bathroom. The first, I’m sure you can imagine would be the toilets. Every once in awhile, I will head into the bathroom, only to find nothing but a tail sticking out of the potty. She is very considerate, though. As you as you come in, she seems to know exactly why you are there and comes out so that you can do your business. I think she realizes that once you use the toilet and flush, she will get brand new fresh cool water.
The other odd thing she uses to get water in the bathrooms are the shower and tub. She generally spends at least a portion of the night in Mom’s shower. I know this because when she finally comes into my bed, she is usually all wet because the shower head drips. The other thing that she has recently started doing (I guess because she finally figured out she could get in there), is spending time in the tub in the main bathroom. Every few days, we find the tub full of kitty prints. I wonder how those got there?
Another thing about the bathroom is that she knows when you are using it that you are temporarily captive so you have nothing to do but pet her if she stays around your legs. She also knows the whole "process" for humans using the restroom. When you stop petting her to clean yourself up, she will sit patiently and wait until you get up. Once you flush, she gets up and walks over to the sink and once again sits and waits while you wash your hands.
 |
| Seriously? |
She must have a thing for hygiene, too, because if you don't stop to wash your hands, she meows at you to let you know you forgot something! Once you wash your hands, she leads you out of the bathroom and into your room to make sure she doesn't get shut out.
A bizarre place she likes to hang out, especially in the dark, is in our front entryway. First, you must understand that Penelope is a tortoise shell-colored cat. That means she is basically calico colored with no white. Her colors are much more mottled and marbled and mixed up than a calico's would be. This, incidentally, is the exact same color as the flagstones in the entryway. Needless to say, if she is lying there and doesn’t move, you can’t see her. That means she gets stepped on a lot. She doesn’t seem to mind, though, because she is always right back there a few minutes later.
 |
| I think I'll just have a seat! |
Another quirky personality trait that Penelope harbors is that for some reason she thinks she is an ostrich. She doesn’t exactly bury her head in the sand, but if she was an outdoor cat, I bet she would. What I mean here is that whenever she gets scared or somehow intimidated, she dives under a bed—whichever one might be handy. Now, normally, I would say that is perfectly normal behavior for a cat. However, the odd part is that whenever she dives under the bed, only her head and the front part of her body actually goes under the bed. Her bottom and tail are still sticking completely out! I guess since she can no longer see whatever spooked her, she is good to go. The funniest part about it is that she can stay that way for 30 minutes or more sometimes.
In my experience, most cats love to be picked up and snuggled. Not Penelope! She absolutely HATES to be picked up and carried around. She likes to be petted, but only when she expects it. Being picked up is not something she ever expects. She does like to come lie on my chest so I can scratch her cheeks, though. I often think that is the highlight of her day.
If she should happen to be lying quietly, and you come up behind her to pet her, she startles and makes a kind of “squawking” noise. Then she will vacate the area as quickly as possible. Now if you pick her up, her “squawking” becomes quite serious. She will continue to squawk and struggle until you have no choice but to put her down. She is declawed on her front feet, but the claws on the back work very efficiently and effectively. This she never lets you forget, especially if you pick her up.
 |
| Looking just like a kitten with her favorite toy |
She also really has no interest in toys like a typical housecat. She loves strings and especially telephone/tablet/laptop charger cords. But her favorite "toy" is a plastic red die with black dots on it. She goes crazy over it! It is full of teeth marks and claw scratches, but that is the thing she loves.
She has a basket that she sleeps in when she can't get into anyone's bedroom at night so she can cuddle up to them. Sometimes I will walk by her sleeping in there, and you can't even see her head. Beware the headless kitty!!!
 |
| Hugging Mommy's laundry |
Yet another oddball thing she does is actually very cute. She shows her love for my family and I by always finding some of our clothes to sleep on, which I’m guessing is fairly common for cats. However, whenever she sleeps, she really likes to have a pillow nearby. She puts one front leg around the pillow, like she is hugging it and the other front leg on the clothes that she has chosen. She looks like a baby clinging with one paw to her favorite pillow and the other paw clinging to the clothes.
I guess that is how we can tell, despite her quirkiness, how much she loves us. The other way Penelope shows us this is that if one of us is gone for school or work overnight, she won’t eat.
No one can tell me that animals don’t feel, or think, or love. My cat Penelope also shows us that cats have their own unique personalities and that some of their individual behaviors can be downright BIZARRE! (Just like those of their humans!!!)
Peace and Love Always,
Angela
 |
| Wicca-kitty |
All Penelope photos Courtesy of Taylor Thompson
No comments:
Post a Comment