Fisters’ playing habits (and lack of them)
For me, half the fun of having a cat is that you can’t completely control them, they are independent and proud. I regard them as one of Gods better gifts to mankind. I would for example love to have an ocelot, or a lynx, but the responsibility is daunting. I love wild animals because they’re so REAL. No thin veneer of civilisation creating arrogance and false pride, no greed or pointless aggression, they live in harmony with their environment and adapt as necessary. They can, of course, also be very smart and devious when they want to, but you can’t blame them for that!
Fister is not a cat who plays a lot, nor will he sit on our lap or let himself be lifted, probably because he spent his youth in a very serious and stressful environment. He used to play a lot with his mum and sister when he was a kitten, and was an EXPERT tree climber. There was a little tree in the yard which was perfect for him, and he would crawl and tumble about in the branches with amazing dexterity, sometimes apparently hanging upside down by a single claw. I used to wonder if he was half cat or half monkey!
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Waiting on the shed roof, next to his favourite tree
We could never touch or lift him in those days, but we found an old bit of string down in the yard, and he really enjoyed racing about after that. When he became a regular visitor, we brought it up for him, and it was his favourite toy for a very long time. Mechanical mice and plastic balls have never interested him, so there was no point in buying them. Later, up in the flat, I tried playing with him a few times, but he takes it so SERIOUSLY! Not having been brought up with humans, he doesn’t understand our weaknesses, and his claws and teeth were there to be USED! I once had a game with him in our dining room, foolishly enticing him to chase my finger round the table leg. It didn’t take him long to work that out, and suddenly, he went for me. ZAP! He managed to get a couple of claws deep into my finger in a micro second, and then he just hung on. I was totally trapped, I couldn’t move my finger because of the table leg, and if I tried to move at all, the claws just sank further into my flesh. I begged pitifully to be released, but he just stared at me stony faced. After a couple of minutes of total humiliation on my knees on the floor, he got bored with it and disdainfully released me. I decided not to try that again! He also has remarkably long front legs, and playing with him under the eiderdown can be dangerous, he has a reach of nearly 30cm when he wants to, and can get to places you just wouldn’t believe! And the claws are always FULLY extended!
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Tired out after a good wool chase!
There was one just toy that we found that was a big success, a little ball of wool. He doesn’t play with it much now, but he went through a period where he really loved it. A favourite game was to purposely push it under a chest of draws to low for him to get under, and then spend ages trying to get it out again. As soon as he succeeded, he would push it back under and start again!
It’s a difficult balance for us, he is still not really domesticated, and sometimes really needs to get out and see what’s going on, but we had to make a decision, and that was that he stays with us.
I like to think that the frustrations we cause him by keeping him in most of the time are balanced up by the fact that he doesn’t have to spend days and nights in the dirt and wind and freezing cold - and there are no vets or soft warm pillows in the back yard!
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What’s that critter doing in MY back yard?
He will sometimes get restless and obviously yearn for his old childhood home, but it isn’t the same any more, his mother is gone, other aggressive cats have turned up, and he’s just not into fighting for territory any more. He has never been aggressive in any way.
He will occasionally go into “mad” mode, and gallop through the flat at full speed, from one end to the other. He once ran his forehead full tilt into a door, THUD!, but just continued as if nothing had happened. They’ve got one hard head these cats! (He once rushed onto the bed, misjudged the distance, slipped, and head bumped me so hard that I could still feel it hours later!) He can also suddenly race full speed into the bedroom in the middle of the night, stop miraculously only millimeters in front of his water glass, and immediately begin to calmly drink from it, as if this was the most natural way in the world to enter a room.
A couple of years ago there was a lot of building work going on in our block, and the workmen had a large porta-cabin parked just outside our front window. One evening, some young kids had crawled up on it and were running around playing. Fister studied them intensely the whole evening. The next day we let him out in the yard as was usual then, but he disappeared, and was just nowhere to be found. Later in the evening, eating our evening meal, we heard a pitiful miawing. Where was he? He was of course, up on the porta-cabin checking it out! He’d got up there (it was about 3 meters high) by climbing a tree beside it, but couldn’t get down again. We went down to try and help, but it seemed to no avail. He was so pitiful! We decided to go back into the yard and see if we could find a ladder. At the sight of us leaving him though, he plucked up his courage and did a scrambling leap and landed with a big thump on the pavement, then quickly ran back up the stairs with us to the security of our flat. That’s when we realised he really belonged more with us than in the harsh environment of the back yard.
So I must admit to slight envy when I hear stories of cats that play together, scramble about on their toy constructions, lay happily in their humans laps and suchlike.
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So who’s the boss around here now? - Ha!
Fisters all-time favourite game was of course to play “King of the Castle” and lie on our bed and get fed with shrimps and lobster! But he unfortunately can’t even do that anymore, due to his sensitive bladder. Let’s hope this will be possible again after the “operation”
He is now quite happy and reasonably well balanced, very loving and caring, polite and thankful for what we have done for him. That is more than enough reward for our labour!
John
