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Cat Silliness
Posted 08-02-2014 at 01:17 PM by ttk
Who'd have thunk it? Simon, our laid-back happy-go-lucky orange kitty, is a scrapper!
Since we moved to this property in 2008, our cats have been hemmed in by the territories of cats from the surrounding neighborhood. If they ventured too far from the house, sometimes while still on the property, they'd get their asses kicked.
Sam, our big grey tomcat, held the other cats' territories out on the periphery for a couple of years, but he'd come out on the losing end of his scuffles about two times out of three. The neighborhood cats kept some distance only because of their innate feline laziness -- they didn't want to bother beating him up again, so wandered elsewhere instead.
After Sam passed, the territories started crowding in again. We've started seeing cats we've never seen before, closer to the house than ever. Whenever we heard cats fighting in the distance, we knew that if one of them was ours, they were getting thrashed. Checking their bodies for wounds became as reflexive as head-scritches.
A couple of years ago we rescued a barely-weaned Simon from my grandmother's back yard and brought him home. He's an orange boy-cat, and the friendliest, most happy-go-lucky creature ever to prowl our halls. He's on my lap and forearm right now, purring up a storm. He's happy just to be here. You'd never think, from looking at him, that he had an aggressive bone in his body.
A few weeks ago, we started noticing that sometimes after hearing the distinctive screams of cats fighting, we'd see a neighborhood cat running for its life, and Simon running after it. Just today I ran out to see what the commotion was about, and following the noise brought me to our northern fenceline. I got there just in time to see a neighborhood cat run out of an orchard, with Simon in hot pursuit, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF OUR FENCE. He's not only kicking ass on our property, but in the surrounding areas as well!
These things take time, but I expect the territories are bulging outward once again. Our clowder has a champion!
Since we moved to this property in 2008, our cats have been hemmed in by the territories of cats from the surrounding neighborhood. If they ventured too far from the house, sometimes while still on the property, they'd get their asses kicked.
Sam, our big grey tomcat, held the other cats' territories out on the periphery for a couple of years, but he'd come out on the losing end of his scuffles about two times out of three. The neighborhood cats kept some distance only because of their innate feline laziness -- they didn't want to bother beating him up again, so wandered elsewhere instead.
After Sam passed, the territories started crowding in again. We've started seeing cats we've never seen before, closer to the house than ever. Whenever we heard cats fighting in the distance, we knew that if one of them was ours, they were getting thrashed. Checking their bodies for wounds became as reflexive as head-scritches.
A couple of years ago we rescued a barely-weaned Simon from my grandmother's back yard and brought him home. He's an orange boy-cat, and the friendliest, most happy-go-lucky creature ever to prowl our halls. He's on my lap and forearm right now, purring up a storm. He's happy just to be here. You'd never think, from looking at him, that he had an aggressive bone in his body.
A few weeks ago, we started noticing that sometimes after hearing the distinctive screams of cats fighting, we'd see a neighborhood cat running for its life, and Simon running after it. Just today I ran out to see what the commotion was about, and following the noise brought me to our northern fenceline. I got there just in time to see a neighborhood cat run out of an orchard, with Simon in hot pursuit, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF OUR FENCE. He's not only kicking ass on our property, but in the surrounding areas as well!
These things take time, but I expect the territories are bulging outward once again. Our clowder has a champion!
Total Comments 4
Comments
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The cat we have now is a lot like your orange cat. He's average size, very friendly, and you wouldn't expect him to get involved in a fight ever. When we moved to Washington, there was a neighborhood cat that was used to using our back yard as a highway to cut across the neighborhood, and Stewie shredded our screen door so he could go beat the snot out of the invader. I'd never seen Stewie do anything like that before, so it was quite a shock.Posted 08-02-2014 at 02:59 PM by rocket357 
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Crash, who I scrapped off of a freeway about 15 years ago. A male.
Has seen better days. He sleeps mostly. I Think he has 1 tooth left.
I still remember him as a scared kitten hiding in my shop. Healing up.
Took about a week for him to come out and look at me and cry out.
Crash is a black and white sylvester cartoon looking cat.
Miso. My over weight female (fixed). She is a princess who is not afeared of nothing.
She IS a human lover. Not a fighter. But. I have seen her throw back a feral cat going
for her feed bowl.
Miso is a snowshoe cat. Google will tell you.
Mine serve a function keeping critters from the desert taking up residence in my M/C shop.
I have no field mice, ground squirrels, rattle snakes, or kangaroo rats in my shop because of this.
My 5 dogs keep the skunks, porcupines, bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions at bay.
As you can tell. I am not a city boy.
My wife has connections with the animal control division in my county.
So all my cats and dogs are throw aways that were to be put to death
any ways. They live a natural good life with me and are happy campers.
After crash passes on. I will be on the look out on the freeway again to pick up his
successor. I saw crash thrown out of a car window doing 70MPH on a Texas freeway
while riding my motorcycle. I inserted the busted up kitten inside my leather jacket and took him home.
Pizza Night!Posted 08-05-2014 at 11:47 AM by rokytnji
Updated 08-05-2014 at 06:19 PM by rokytnji -
That's insane, rokytnji. My mom had a similar experience with a dog that she "rescued" from certain death on a highway (being tossed from a car)...best dog she ever owned.
I don't understand people who do stuff like that. It's one thing to attempt to do harm to an animal that is capable of defending itself, but a fuzzball kitten? I don't get it.Posted 08-06-2014 at 12:00 AM by rocket357
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Ditto on that. My poor girl still cowers every time someone makes a quick upward movement, but she's still the sweetest thing ever.
Posted 08-07-2014 at 02:02 PM by vmccord
