I suppose cats never really become “tame” like dogs for example, they simply regard themselves as our “partners”.
If you visit us in our flat, you would probably regard Fister as a tame, but shy cat. But we didn’t entice him up to our flat until he was about a year old, and before that, he had been 100% wild. He was brought up in a world of thundering dustbins, large aggressive dogs and even people who didn’t like cats! His mum Mrs. Spot obviously detested humans, and she probably had some talks with Fister about keeping well away from them.
All this doesn’t often show much nowadays, but when he first arrived on our scene, he was really interesting to watch. A study in behaviour patterns as it were. Here are some of the new objects that Fister had to come to terms with in his 5 star luxury home.
The carpet!
What exquisite luxury was this? Having lived all his life on concrete and dirt, this was just amazing! He rolled around on it, gave it a good scratching, rolled around on it again, scratched again and then just rolled around on his back with a big grin on his face. This was a standard habit for months before he began to accept it as normal.
The ceiling!
Where on earth had the sky gone, why didn’t it rain anymore? One of his favourite occupations for a long time was to lay somewhere comfortable and just gaze at the ceiling. Many pleasant hours could be spent this way. Every corner was scrutinised again and again, the lamp a special object of attention.
The clock!
What was this spidery thing moving round and round on the wall? When he finally pulled up the courage to sit on the table in my office, he would sit as if mesmerised, just staring at the second hand.
Doors!
What on earth were these things? Were they dangerous? Definately unpredictable! He once relaxed enough to lean against a door, and it moved! He was out of the room and under the bed in a flash. Now he’s got used to them, and will hook them open to get through. But funnily enough he’s never realised that you can also push them, and this resulted in him squashing himself in the door once and severely frightening himself.
The television!
This is no longer of interest, but at first it was a constant source of wonder. His favourites were the scrolling credits, football (soccer) and Formula 1 racing cars. We once showed him a video of himself eating shrimps. He was completely captivated by this, and ended up going over to the screen and scratching after the shrimps!
Nowadays he appears superficially to be quite tame. He is loving and caring, lies all over us in bed at night, and has learnt to talk with us. He has a whole range of different sounds, not a lot of miaowing but purring-like grunts and squeaks. He complains when his cat litter is messy, (very rare) or when he hasn’t received the food that he feels he deserves, but he will also say thank you and respond with a loving headbump or two! He knows now who is in charge, and is very proud of his two tame humans.
But he is a creature of instinct and routine, and as soon as something is not as it usually is, he will revert to type. The tiniest thing can put him in a state of extreme caution. Just a pair of shoes standing in the wrong place can put him right off his stride and will have to be carefully checked out before he relaxes.
When he comes up onto the bed in the evenings, he has a standard routine. He will sit and look at the bed for a moment, then very cautiously stand on the edge with his front legs and survey the territory, raising his head and sniffing the air. He looks like a cheetah on a termite mound checking out the savannah. Only then he will hop up, but if a remote control or a book or something else unexpected appears he will go on full alert again until he is quite sure that it isn’t dangerous. He’s only been on the bed a few thousand times but you never know! Last Christmas we came home unusually late at night, and in frustration over this break in routine Fister had opened every door and cupboard in the whole flat.
So the old saying is probably true (or to paraphrase it) - You can take a cat out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the cat!
John
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