Things I Can Learn from a Dog (...& a Cat)

[lizzytysh]

Makera ~

You really could just circulate this one around the Internet, the same as the dog one was ~ it's great ! For my household, on the first one, you can remove the "(kitten)" though, as they're all adults and still run around acting like fools. Wash & groom / wash & groom.....o-o-o-o-o-h yeah! Affection ~ when least expected/rat, snake, also bird, rabbit ~ and bask in the praise, and horror. Only a cat lover could have written this. Good job! Vesuvius may want to adapt it somehow for Italian cats, of course , but my American ones are covered .

~ Elizabeth

[lizzytysh]

Hi Andrew ~ Yes, and of course, there are a few other breeds that would have to join them on the BL Pages . I honestly couldn't understand what the big deal was with his love of the breed. I always preferred big dogs over little ones, but these were always wiggling, never seemed to be able to stay still for a minute! Amazing how that happy wiggle, that seems to lift their own legs off the ground, can be so heartwarming and fun, though, isn't it? I ended up loving her as much as he did ~ shocked myself cuz I was for the calmer, big breeds that you could hug up to and put your face in. Liable to come out with a broken nose if you do that with a boxer . They do calm down, but seemingly only after they've exhausted themselves .

This Basenji breed that Makera's talking about sounds intrigueing. "Wash & groom / Wash & groom" ~ here we go again . Their verbals sound very endearing. I had a German Shepherd that would climb a 6-foot fence to follow me. She'd dig a 4-foot hole to get under the fence, too. Her name was Willow. Generally speaking, that type of dog is for me. I've had 2 Greyhounds [rescued from the racing killing fields] and one would run in "crazy 8's," in the "8" pattern, around me with me in the center. The harder I'd laugh, the faster he'd run.

~ Elizabeth

[Makera]

Lizzy~

I'm so glad you liked the 'Cat lessons'. Yes, I know cats have those 'silly half hours' (as we called them) at any age. Maybe I should have written 'fool/kitten', I meant to convey 'act' like one. Oh, yeah, I know about the birds and rabbits! Pssst! I'm trying to present a 'politically correct' and 'environmentally friendly' cat here, don't you know! Darn, now you've gone and blown it. The non-hunters do exist though, they're just in the minority.
When we were in the farming country in Oz, one of our cats would hunt and kill rabbits as big as herself. (Rabbits are vermin in Oz, i.e. not indigenous) My mother once saw her at a distance moving strangely down the field, halting and dragging every few feet. At first my mum thought she was injured until she noticed the huge rabbit she was trying to drag home. It was longer and larger than our little huntress! Her name was Bella, is that 'Italian' enough for Ves, do you think?

~Makera

PS. Godzilla, I'm sorry, I forgot to aknowledge your comment, thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed your time in my birthplace. Nice to visit...it's just so far from the rest of the 'happening' world.

[linmag]

Is Paul Gallico still in print, Makera? I read those two books (and several others of his) years ago, and would love to re-read them.

Our first cat was like your Bella. She regularly caught rabbits (amongst other things), and until she got old and picky she would eat them all. The two that we have now are definitely 'environmentally friendly'. All they seem to be able to 'catch' are the elastic bands the postman drops

[Makera]

Hi Linmag~

Hunting elastic bands...now that's a 'stretch' for the imagination! Sorry, I should have done better than that. About Paul Gallico's books, I really don't know if they are still in print; that's something I'll have to search the web for. There are some sites that deal in rare, out of print, and second-hand books. Yes, I'd love to read them again too, I haven't since I was a kid. 'Thomasina' didn't quite translate into film, did it. I remember needing a lot of tissues reading the book!

~Makera

[lizzytysh]

Sorry about that ~ the visuals just leapt into my mind and out they came. I've only witnessed a rabbit-kill twice in my life of owning cats [thank G~d, and that's a literal thanking]. The first was many years ago, and I heard screaming, ran to the window, and saw my cat loping down the hill. I thought the same thing, that she was injured, until I saw bulkiness that didn't seem to belong to her. The mind really scrambles to make sense of it, and especially when you realize the true situation! I can really easily [now!] picture Bella's conquest.

The other time was here, where I live now, within the past year. The partially eaten carcass was right at my front door . I know there's a school of thought that you should praise at these moments because of the psychology behind their presenting them to you ~ . However, it feels like praising that action constitutes praising their original action of the killing itself . I know, "instincts" and all that, but even so ...... and now, not that I didn't feel badly enough about the birds, I've seen Winged Migration, and it'll be even worse . Fortunately, they are as you said, pretty 'environmentally friendly' , so I don't have to deal with it much . I do all I can to keep them well fed, in hopes that will curb their instincts.

Linmag and Makera ~ I'm really taken with cat stories. Do the two names represent one book or two? "Thomasina" rings a bell, but then maybe that's because I'll sometimes affectionately call someone [who's name is Thomas] that. I know about the tissues with some of these animal stories, dogs too, and with what I saw on film with the birds, there too, if a story were written. Life is life is life.

~ Lizzy

[linmag]

Makera, I seem to remember tissues were the order of the day for most of his books I remember Jenny quite well, but not Thomasina. I never saw that film either.

I have to say that I find the gift of elastic bands much easier to deal with than dismembered rabbit carcases in the utility room. The weed from next door's garden pond had me quite worried, though, until I made sure it was vegetable rather than animal

[Vesuvius]

Ciao Cat Lovers,

Our family cat when I was a child was named Caesar. He lived to be very old. And until the end he was a hunter. He lost all his teeth but he would still gum the little mice that he caught. He died during a sudden snow storm. We found him frozen under the house. Arrivederci Caesar!

Vesuvius

[Jo]

Several years ago I was given a rabbit by a total stranger and told that it would be sent to the SPCA if I didn't give the damned thing a home. I happily agreed on condition that our then-current incumbents, viz. 3 cats and 1 dog, accepted it - knowing that I'd then have a perfectly valid excuse for giving the rabbit back.

I introduced the rabbit to the residents one by one. The siamese cat boxed the rabbit's ear and walked away, Fat Cat sniffed the rabbit disdainfully and waddled off, the baby cat rushed at the rabbit and then rushed off to climb a tree and the dog stuck her nose in the rabbits ears, face and bottom and then bounced off wagging her own bottom. The rabbit trundled off and settled in under a tree. She became Elvis Parsley and ate everything from bedlinen to the brand new shirts of friends who came to visit. Fat Cat adopted her and they were often caught napping in the sun with the cat's arm around the rabbit's neck - we have photos of cats and dog and rabbit eating from the same bowl (as I said - Ms Parsley ate everything - including cat/dog food). Under pressure from the horrible monsters we later introduced a Peruvian Guinea pig who was never known by any other name than "The Slipper" (he was the same colour as the dog, a Golden Cocker Spaniel, and he looked like a bedroom slipper). He and Ms Parsley became firm friends and died within days of each other.

It would be an understatement to say that our local Vet, who treated the whole bloody lot, was rather surprised at the cross-species friendships.

I think humans can often learn a lot from animal relationships.

Jo

[Makera]

Jo~ Thank you for that story, it was truly delightful! Your descriptions were so wonderfully vivid I couldn't help grinning as I read it. Yeah, animals never cease to amaze. The cross-species friendships are pretty common in domestic pets. Cats with mouse or rat buddies are not unheard of either!

Ves~ Oh, poor Ceasar!

Linmag~ I think the movie "Thomasina" was Disney. It starred Patrick McGoohan. I know the English actress in it too, but my right and left brain hemispheres have a disconnect at the moment -- you know, see the face but can't get the name to come through. It came out in the 60s.

~Makera

[lizzytysh]

Oh dear, Ves ~ . I want to believe that because Caesar was already so old, his system wasn't strong enough to generate heat against the cold, and that he died peacefully. I understand that when someone freezes to death, they go to sleep and don't wake up. I pray that was the case with Caesar. What a sad vision of finding him .

Jo ~ Your contrasting, wonderful anecdotal account belongs in a book of animal stories. You're soooo right that we have much to learn from the animal world. Their deaths coinciding was evidence akin to couples who have lived together the majority of their adult lives, and heartbreak takes them. You would be able to write great children's stories. Ever given it any thought?

Love,
Lizzy

[Paula]

I love cats their superiority, their grace, their aloofness just everything about them.

Vesuvius I am glad Caesar had a last summer to laze and hunt. I wasn't going to get any more cats after my last one died - it is too upsetting to lose them but no home is complete without a moggy so I got a rescue cat.

[lizzytysh]

Yes, Paula ~ and aren't people surprized when they see them come when called !

Caesar's fate was not an easy one to read. Good points about his last summer, Paula.

[Byron]

I found this deep in the bowels of my computer's dredging programme (keeps to English spelling again)

The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something that can be learned in no other way.

- Mark Twain

[lizzytysh]

~ Yes, and Mark was being male-specific when he said this .