Pussy

I write about our dogs all the time, even one that is no longer with us.  I write about us, both in our personal and our Pagan lives.  But my tag line mentions 2 Pagans, 2 Puppies, and 2 Cats!  And I really haven't been giving our cats a fair shake, so here goes.

We have two cats, a small, gray domestic short-hair, and a rather large, black, medium-haired Maine Coon mix.  Audrey is bad-tempered and very, very smart.  Dale is sweet, laid-back, and not-so smart.  If you come to our house I can almost guarantee you will see neither, they are both so shy of strangers.

First and foremost is Audrey.  We usually describe her as 8 lbs of concentrated malice.  For a while we worried that there was something wrong with her feet because she never drew her claws in.  When she walks across a hard surface you can hear "click, click, click" because she won't put her claws in.  (We found out she CAN, she just chooses not to do so most of the time.)  I have multiple small scars across my legs because she walks across you with her claws out.  Dale and I are scared of her because she's so quick to take offense, and those claws are always ready. When she was about 10 weeks old, and weighed about 2 lbs, it took me, a vet, and two vet technicians to hold her down to have blood drawn.  Two of the humans ended up bleeding, too.

Despite all that, she CAN be sweet, and her purrs are treasured because they are so rare.  She can figure out any obstacle that doesn't require thumbs, and she is the absolute ruler of her domain. 

Or she was until we got the puppies.  At that point, her maternal instincts seem to have kicked in, and she won't hurt them, no matter how much they bother her.  We're glad we haven't had to rush to the emergency vet with a bleeding nose or scratched eye, but at the same time it's made teaching the dogs to rein in their prey drives and not chase the cats all the harder.  Talk about mixed blessings.

Dale is the polar opposite of his 'sister'.  His claws are rarely out, his frequent purrs are loud enough to hear two rooms away, and he usually has to be shown the way around obstacles.  He is a gorgeous, 20+ lb male with fur that is a deep, deep black tinged with chocolate brown at the very tips.  He will lay on your lap through an entire movie, purring any time he's not asleep, and not clawing you once.

Of course, when his claws DO come out, he can do a lot of damage--he has serious muscle and mass to put behind his rather large claws.  And you'd think he was slow, because of all that size, but you'd be wrong.  He may not be as quick as Audrey, but we saw him take a fly out of the air with one swat a couple of days ago.

He has no maternal instincts, nor even any paternal ones, as far as we can tell.  Both dogs have a healthy respect for him, and won't mess with him if he's facing them.  (They still will chase if he runs, but we're working on that.)

And in case you can't tell, I love both my kitties very much.  :)