Early Morning Cat
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| Toby |
Many of us have animals as pets in our homes. They are for the most part, very nice
additions to our lives. At times though
like each of us, they too can be a challenge with their unusual habits. For some of you readers, you know that we
have a cat named Toby because I written about her in past. She was a stray that adopted us as her
family. One day she showed up in our
meadow, and me being a softy, tossed food out to her since I was first to see her. She was very thin and was apparently starving. After having her treated for intestinal parasites,
and giving her all the shots that she needed, Toby was a part of our family. She has now lived with us for about 4 years, and we
could not imagine what life would be like without her. She is very protective of our children and
has been very patient with them when they were small. I remember our little boy running around the
house chasing her, trying to pet her with aggressive strokes that would have made me
wince, that is, with the vigor of affection that Will wanted to give her. Consequently, Toby did not bite or hiss; she only headed
for a part of the house she knew Will could not go to. It would not be unusual to see her sitting
patiently on the other side of a child gate, waiting for her audience to leave, so Toby could perform her cat duties that was so much a part of her daily routine.
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| "This is my kitty!" |
Our daughter on the other hand had different ideas for
Toby. As a two year old, Abby had a
passion for dolls and dress up. I have
built her two large doll houses and Abby has loved playing with them,
decorating the individual rooms and of course, dressing up her dolls. After a period of time though, Abby wanted to
have a doll that moved, and it was not unusual to walk by and see a little cat
dressed up in an American Girl dress, or have some bib or doll bonnet on Toby’s
head. Toby on the other hand did not
protest with this, she only went patiently along with this gentle abuse. Toby has adopted our children as her kittens, and while loving Abby and Will very much, she is also very protective of them as well.
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| Anne reading to Abby and Will. |
Toby though has a few idiosyncrasies of her own. She loves to go in and out of the house at
her choosing, and will on occasion want to give a mouse to my wife when she is
sitting on the porch with me, that is while having a cup of coffee early in the morning. Anne, trying not to panic on the other hand,
will attempt to ignore Toby. This will
leave our cat no choice in her mind, thus Toby will next lift the very lively
mouse up to Anne’s knees, in an attempt to thrust her gift into Anne’s lap. For
Toby, she obviously sees Anne as being a little dull in aptitude, not recognizing
a generous gift when it laid out before her.
At this point my gentle wife will
wince and pull her legs up to her chin, all the while her ladylike resolve
disappears into gasps of horror. Seeing
Anne in a panic, I will gently lift Toby away and set the kitty down in the
flower garden along with her rejected gift.
I look at Toby’s prize and calculate that the mouse has a 50-50 chance
in disappearing in the flowerbed, if it is clever enough to escape.
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| "I am very easy to love!" |
When getting married, both Anne and I took time in geting used
to each other and our habits. Some of
them were changed for the other's convenience, and with other pre-formed habits, we found it
wise to compromise. This arrangement has
proved to be very effective in adapting to each other for our individual and
collective ways of life. When children
came along though, we found ourselves adjusting further to more changes in our ways. At each stage of our children’s development,
more changes were required for both of us as parents, and for our children
as well. All in all, we have a wonderful
life and enjoy each other very much.
But, there is one area that I personally struggle with, and that is with
Toby waking me up at around 4 in the morning wanting to be fed.
Over the years we have found that as a family, we cannot
allow Toby to feed on unlimited amounts of food laid out before her. We found that her weight gain went up in a
very short time. We can only associate
that with Toby's fear of starving, that it came with her living in the wild and always being hungry. Consequently, with this compulsion
in Toby, that is in wanting to gorge herself, we measure out her food twice a day. We feed her once in the morning and one time in the
evening, giving her around a half of a cup each time. Toby’s weight has gone down to a normal level,
and she looks now like a sleek beautifully groomed kitty. We have made Toby a part of the family and we
cannot say how much we would miss her if she was not in our lives each day.
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| "I would scare Scrat away if not for this glass!" |
But on the other hand, Toby has one bad habit that requires,
on my part, a great deal of patience. As I previously stated, she wants to wake me up every day around 4 a.m. to feed her. First, Toby jumps on the bed and tries a stare
down with me. If I am asleep, of which I
normally am at that time, Toby goes about as if I were awake and alert, she assumes then that I will respond to her with kind gestures, and if I ignore her (in her eyes) she then goes to
plan B. Toby next pushes her nose up
against mine, this would not be so bad except that hers is very wet, and her
breath is not to be found in having a fresh toothpaste smell. What invariably happens is that I roll over
and try to ignore her at this point.
Seeing this obvious rudeness on my part, she next starts to walk on my
body, starting with my head and ending with my feet being compressed with tiny
weighted paws. Now if this does not get
me up, Toby then begins to start purring very loudly. At this point I think that in her mind, she
appears very loving, and so, reveals this to me, of which then I will surely get her
food. I then roll over and look at the
clock, and at this point I think less loving thoughts about my feline furry
creature of habit. I recall one time in telling Anne about the incident that I just described, and after sharing this
with her, that is of my tormented tale, she compassionately touched me on the shoulder
and said that Toby, in her mind, only wants me to get up early as I often do in
the summer to play golf. “She is being a dutiful alarm clock. Cats are a creature of habit and Toby only
wants to help you get on the golf course on time.” I wanted to believe this, but I could not find
the compassion needed at this point because if that were so, then Toby would
leave me alone after getting up. Instead, she follows me around the house and meows until she is
fed. After eating her fill, Toby then
retreats to a chair or couch and subsequently goes to sleep.
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| Toby just groomed herself. Next, time to roll in the sand |
(Now back again to our early morning Tango.) If Toby does see that I am not overwhelmed
with her show of affection for me, that is, by purring very loudly, her next course
of action is to begin walking on Anne. I
then quickly notice Toby’s next ploy and gently brush her off Anne before she
wakes up in a fright. In the routine of
things, Toby has devised varied methods of annoying me until I do get up. One of these times was when I cleverly closed the bedroom door on her. I then felt very proud of my very obvious
intellect over the beast. “This will
keep her out and I can now sleep.” Toby
though is not to be deterred. In her attempt in not being out smarted, she then
pushes up against the solid core oak door.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and for Toby,
she understands this mathematical principle all to well. She somehow knows that with each thrust given, it will give way to a loud banging noise
when the door hits the stop. Now in
desperation, if this action does not work, she then starts meowing very loudly,
as well as rubs up against our bedroom door with weighted gusto. By this point I am desperate, and somewhat
frustrated. I am beginning to gave in,
so I open the door and Toby enters purring away, all the while I angrly retreat
to my covers. I am almost asleep once
more when I then feel the claws of a paw against my thigh. This had an immediate effect on me, one that normally would take several cups
of coffee to produce. I found myself waking up with my heart
racing and my eyes bulging out with horror.
“What in the world!” I then looked down by my assaulted body part, only to see a kitty looking very innocent, and
appearing to be waiting patiently for me to get up. That angelic look on her whiskered face
seemed to show a puzzled smile as if to say, “Whaaaat?”
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| Looking for mice and chipmunks. |
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| Abby wanted to take this picture of her kitty. |
I am not usually a person that gets riled very
easily, but waking up with claws in my thigh, well, it brings out in me the person I am
not fond of. I know that Jesus has asked
us love our enemies, but at this point my thoughts are not in line with
scripture. I am thinking very badly at
this moment. My thoughts vengefully go to that of having a cat feeder that is chucked full of food with
laser sensors on the cover. I then envision the lid closing when Toby is about to eat. This process repeats itself in my mind over and over until I feel some sort of pay back. The dark side of me
at this point also thinks of how I will wait until Toby is asleep. I then begin to pet Toby vigorously until she is clearly awake. I smile, and then retreat to my bed, sleeping
very soundly once again. Later, I then repeat the same process, which wakes Toby up, and then walking away smiling knowing that she was brought out of a sound sleep as she had done for me. These thoughts are soon released to one of
feeling guilty for wanting revenge on such a poor creature. Later after getting dressed, I find myself walking over to my kitty and petting her gently, trying to
forget what had just transpired. My next
stop, after filling the cat’s dish, is to the coffee pot. Now my day has
begun, albeit sooner than I expected.
