About ten years ago, my friend called and said, "I'm going to work at Club Med! I need you to take care of my cats while I'm there. It'll be about two months."
So Dino and Max came to live with us. Max was kind of a neurotic cat, always on the hunt for a piece of paper to eat. But Dino was a cool cucumber. He sauntered around like the king of the castle.
My friend called to say, "they have extended my contract! It'll be more like a year!" I said, "I don't think it's fair to the cats to live somewhere for a year and then go back to you. What do you think?"
Well, we still have Dino, so I think you know what she said.
We adopted another stray cat a while later, so now the count was one boy (Dino) and two girls. They lied around together, grooming each other and cuddling up for snoozes. They played and wrestled and things were good.
Then, when I was pregnant with my first, Dino started terrorizing the girls. He would chase them around the house, trying to bite their necks, and they would hiss and shriek at them. The old chase game, which we called "racetrack kitties," turned into something much more unpleasant. A lot of times, I would have to put him in another room. I thought maybe all the hormones I was giving off were affecting him despite the fact that we was fixed. It was really very strange.
Things did not get better until we moved out of the condo-on-a-busy-street and into a house-with-a-yard-on-a-quiet-street. We let him go outside and prowl around, and things improved. During the next few years, we were very sad to lose the two girls, first one, and then the other.
He has been our only cat for four or five years now.
He is a great cat - patient, even-tempered, not bothered by the kids' energy. People who don't like cats tend to like him ... because he's friendly, more like a dog than a cat.
But.
He is lonely. He is needy. If I sit down, boom! he's in my lap. When people come to our house to visit, he is all over them and won't take no for an answer. He will even climb into The Hubby's lap, and they have never gotten along. In his advancing age, he sleeps a lot. I try to give him attention, but there are times when I need to stand up. I think he needs another cat around to snuggle with, but we don't want to be getting another cat right now. But I see him and my heart yells, "he needs a cat friend!"
Awww, Dino, bud, we love you. Just wanted you to know that.
2 comments:
He's a gorgeous cat. Scritches for you Dino.
Maybe age makes them feel more like cuddling? Our cat is 13. She used to be standoffish, but she's gradually asked for more and more petting. Now she waits on the couch every morning for my son to wake up and pet her.
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