Amigo is a 17 year old cat who has been with me since he was 6weeks old. (His dam chose me the day after I moved into the house across the street. She came to the front door crying, purred while pet then resumed crying as she walked 3 steps away. In this manner she led me across the street, through a gate to the shed with a large litter of 5 week old kittens.) He is a gentle, affectionate & grumpy feline who sleeps with me every night. He has the uncanny ability of a good friend who knows when to comfort, I have not ever cried alone. He usually will not come to anyone else's call . . . Bess, the dread pirate dog is almost 5, trained by myself &Amigo's sibling, the dear departed Ami. Each of them likes to have an early morning constitutional followed by a morning nap, hopefully in a sunny spot on the front porch. Bess enjoys a mid day ball chase accented with an occasional gopher catch. Amigo retired from the rodent removal service years ago, not counting the occasional sport hunt for fun & torture. (When sport hunting, Amigo brings a live trophy into the house mewing loudly around a mouthful of fur or scales. After he is certain that everyone is awake to admire his catch, he lets the frightened, tiny chum down, to play with some more. He often loses interest in the Bounce the Buddy game & invites his pal to play Hide & Seek, allowing the little fellow to run for cover. At this point I try to evacuate the new friend with a warning "Cats are not nice playmates & their idea of being flippant is literal." ) Afternoons are a mystery as we are usually at work, yet I surmise more naps are the order. If dinner is not served by 6:pm, Amigo begins quietly complaining, "Meow.......Meow......" However if dinner is not quickly forthcoming, his complaints become louder, "Meow..Meow..MEOW" until food is placed in front of him. On the other paw, Bess has perfected the psychic begging stare, "Starving over here, wasting to nothing, don't you love me any more?" implore her multi colored eyes.
Bess gets a sunset walk just before dinner & a late night walk just before bedtime. Amigo likes to stay out all day in good weather, come in for dinner & settle in for a long nap in my bed. He has decided that 3:am is a good time for a constitutional. He would have the same temper tantrum as a late dinner only he would yell "Meowt..Meowt.. MEEOWTT!!" Until finally I decided to leave the bathroom window open all the time. The tradeoff of the possibility of raccoon invasion was offset by a full nights sleep. Once Amigo could come & go at any hour, he achieved a prescient knowledge of when my alarm was set. No matter what time it was set, 6:15, 6:20 , 7:05... he would come in precisely 15 minutes (that most precious dream time) before it would go off to wake me. From the cold, damp outdoors he would begin asking" Hey, are you awake?" & keep asking (louder & louder of course) as he came up the stairs to my bed. Upon hearing my groggy voice, he would climb under the covers to dry off on me (thus insuring that I was truly awake now...) & purr "Good, I'll take my early morning nap now."
Just as the routine in our home became settled, along came a beautiful silver grey Tom cat. He is twice Amigo's size length wise, yet curiously short changed in leg length. Subtly striped with pale jade green eyes, he has long white tufts coming out of his ears & a mane about his neck. He appears to be a long haired cat, when actually he is medium haired with the muscles of a Pit Bull. Canvassing the four "cat loving" houses in our neighborhood for about 6 months, he was begging to be adopted. Affectionately rubbing against any leg he could find, cozying up for a free lunch. He tried every charming trick to be noticed; rolling on his back for belly rubs, yelling at the back door "Hey, anyone want to come out & play? Are you home? Got cat food?", purring ecstatically when he received attention. Our neighbor M was the first to think of adopting him. When she consulted her sweetheart, he replied "We don't need an extra cat." Now we had a name to refer to when talking over the back fence, "Have you seen Extra lately?..." G started in on me about taking responsibility for Extra. My first concern was for Amigo, I would not want him to be pushed out by a younger cat. We started feeding Extra, outside, on a regular basis & watching to see how the two males behaved with each other. Amigo allowed Extra to sit next to him in some of his favorite garden spots, so we allowed Extra to come in the house for a few supervised hours. Amigo appeared accepting & Extra stayed on his best behavior, seeming to know that he was auditioning for a place beside the fire while it rained outdoors. The next hurdle was getting Extra fixed, I did not want a wandering, spraying tomcat around. G took him to his appointment & I picked him up afterward. Extra has been distant, even hostile to G every since. Meanwhile, feeling more secure, Extra has tried to assume the alpha position. Bess believes that she is the alpha of the world & wasn't wearing dominance from the new cat. Small ploys like sniffing the dogs dinner became teeth bearing stand offs where Extra was forced to back down. Amigo is my best friend, so that every imposition from the new cat was blocked by the giant who opens the can.
Besides being extra large, he lives up to his name by being extraordinary. Stopped in his plans for house domination, Extra observed Amigos every move & began imitating him exactly. If Amigo sat on the front porch with his paws crossed, so did Extra. When Amigo stretched, Extra copied move for move, like watching a TaiChi class. Extra has apprenticed himself & is quite willingly letting Amigo mentor him in the proper household behaviors. Amigo observed that Extra will gladly exit through the bathroom window, yet seems to hate coming back in that way. This led to Amigo using the devious strategy of luring Extra out for a midnight hunt & then abandoning the younger cat for a solo return to my bed. Amigo's ruse worked quite well for many weeks, halting only recently. Extra worked out that he could block the traffic flow by laying outside in front of the window, thereby controlling egress... I guess the giant can opener shall have to intervene again.
Bess gets a sunset walk just before dinner & a late night walk just before bedtime. Amigo likes to stay out all day in good weather, come in for dinner & settle in for a long nap in my bed. He has decided that 3:am is a good time for a constitutional. He would have the same temper tantrum as a late dinner only he would yell "Meowt..Meowt.. MEEOWTT!!" Until finally I decided to leave the bathroom window open all the time. The tradeoff of the possibility of raccoon invasion was offset by a full nights sleep. Once Amigo could come & go at any hour, he achieved a prescient knowledge of when my alarm was set. No matter what time it was set, 6:15, 6:20 , 7:05... he would come in precisely 15 minutes (that most precious dream time) before it would go off to wake me. From the cold, damp outdoors he would begin asking" Hey, are you awake?" & keep asking (louder & louder of course) as he came up the stairs to my bed. Upon hearing my groggy voice, he would climb under the covers to dry off on me (thus insuring that I was truly awake now...) & purr "Good, I'll take my early morning nap now."
Just as the routine in our home became settled, along came a beautiful silver grey Tom cat. He is twice Amigo's size length wise, yet curiously short changed in leg length. Subtly striped with pale jade green eyes, he has long white tufts coming out of his ears & a mane about his neck. He appears to be a long haired cat, when actually he is medium haired with the muscles of a Pit Bull. Canvassing the four "cat loving" houses in our neighborhood for about 6 months, he was begging to be adopted. Affectionately rubbing against any leg he could find, cozying up for a free lunch. He tried every charming trick to be noticed; rolling on his back for belly rubs, yelling at the back door "Hey, anyone want to come out & play? Are you home? Got cat food?", purring ecstatically when he received attention. Our neighbor M was the first to think of adopting him. When she consulted her sweetheart, he replied "We don't need an extra cat." Now we had a name to refer to when talking over the back fence, "Have you seen Extra lately?..." G started in on me about taking responsibility for Extra. My first concern was for Amigo, I would not want him to be pushed out by a younger cat. We started feeding Extra, outside, on a regular basis & watching to see how the two males behaved with each other. Amigo allowed Extra to sit next to him in some of his favorite garden spots, so we allowed Extra to come in the house for a few supervised hours. Amigo appeared accepting & Extra stayed on his best behavior, seeming to know that he was auditioning for a place beside the fire while it rained outdoors. The next hurdle was getting Extra fixed, I did not want a wandering, spraying tomcat around. G took him to his appointment & I picked him up afterward. Extra has been distant, even hostile to G every since. Meanwhile, feeling more secure, Extra has tried to assume the alpha position. Bess believes that she is the alpha of the world & wasn't wearing dominance from the new cat. Small ploys like sniffing the dogs dinner became teeth bearing stand offs where Extra was forced to back down. Amigo is my best friend, so that every imposition from the new cat was blocked by the giant who opens the can.
Besides being extra large, he lives up to his name by being extraordinary. Stopped in his plans for house domination, Extra observed Amigos every move & began imitating him exactly. If Amigo sat on the front porch with his paws crossed, so did Extra. When Amigo stretched, Extra copied move for move, like watching a TaiChi class. Extra has apprenticed himself & is quite willingly letting Amigo mentor him in the proper household behaviors. Amigo observed that Extra will gladly exit through the bathroom window, yet seems to hate coming back in that way. This led to Amigo using the devious strategy of luring Extra out for a midnight hunt & then abandoning the younger cat for a solo return to my bed. Amigo's ruse worked quite well for many weeks, halting only recently. Extra worked out that he could block the traffic flow by laying outside in front of the window, thereby controlling egress... I guess the giant can opener shall have to intervene again.