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WP's Cats' Farm - all for nothing but the cat

Living with cats

Every cat is a reaction animal and perceives the environment in a different way as we do. Cats must just get used to thinking has priority in the human environment. They, however, have the wish to know their territory exactly. Thus an interesting interaction with the »crown of creation« takes place.

I think cats would say about us something like this: »Human beings are a bit sluggish, but they are clever fellows.« At least I can hand back the last compliment.

When you want to impress your cat one time, you can either catch a mouse under the critical view of your cat, or you can extinguish a match or a candle with your fingers just face to face. Respect is ensured.

I like cats. And they me, too. Anyhow I think so.

Schnurri

Chrrr, pfff, chrrr, pfff, ...

Expect gratitude even from animals. In the dense bushes again and again one heard rustling and noise. After some days father made up his mind and forced his way through the dense branches.
It was a cat. He offered something to drink first and then something to eat, what was gratefully accepted. Because she didn't move away he carefully saved her. This was really necessary, because she had jammed her tail. Still it was on it, but obviously it hurt and hindered her so much that she had probably hidden for dying.

How to react on a Saturday afternoon? Without too much hesitation mother phoned the rescue station - and in fact the medical emergency came! The understanding human-medical doctor removed the tail, took care of the wound and the about 70 mm (about 3 inch) long tail stub. He didn't even wrote an invoice. (What he should have written? Perhaps »Tail amputated, patient is well«? ;-)

Schnurri stayed with us. Her name (Engl.: Purry) was due to her extensive purring. In bed the laid around one's chin like a full beard and rattled for minutes into one's ear after each slightly movement or deeper breath one made.

Later at the vet we earned a critical view due to the professionally cropped cat: »This was done by a specialist.«
Schnurri never forget her rescuer. Where ever father was going or standing Schnurri threw herself towards him. All other things didn't worry at this moment.

Felix

Eldest son of Schnurri - Felix. Used to people right from the beginning - they were just around the kitchen table as he was born - he was fond of his folks. Where they were pleased he was pleased, too, e.g. in the middle of the model railway. Not that he intended to catch the trains. No, he had chosen the marketplace as sleeping place. But only when somebody was present, too.

Felix was the only cat watching television »consciously«. All other cats reacted by instinct - not to say aggressively - on animal movies (birds!) and cat food spots.
Felix especially preferred animated cartoon and soccer broadcast without showing any intention to interact in any kind.

The words and photos deceive a bit. Felix was quite active. Unforgotten the hilarious pursuits with Schnurri, even if he had grown up. Once one heard a strange babbling mew out of the bed of roses. He had speared up his tongue with a thorn and now he hung on the rose plant. Cheerfully I took it off and immediately the rush continued as if nothing had ever happened.

Due to his cheeping voice, which didn't fit to his size anyhow, he received the nickname Elephant Baby.

Leo

Ready - steady - go!

Grrrr... grizzly!

End of a friendship perhaps. Leo, Schnurri's second son, was a madcap. He even grappled up the curtain sometime and had the special liking to climb up human legs without warning, but with full claw usage. And even further.
As long as he was small and one wore thick trousers no problem. But with an adult tomcat and shorts or a short skirt..., refer to the introducing sentence.

Leo spent his happy cat life at an aunt. (Not therefore, but because with Schnurri and Felix two cats were in the house already.)
He kept his pleasure for climbing until old age. The aunt can tell a story about! No curtain, no structural wallpaper and no leg were safe from him.

Mugo

Encounter at the animals' home between tomcat Mugo and me. It was friendship at first sight. And the folks of the animals' home were just happy to get rid of an adult tomcat.

Mugo was an exceptional phenomenon: clearly bigger than a normal house cat (therefore I was asked often whether he was a wild cat) he listened to his name and learned to follow the leash.

In order to give him pleasure, one threw a table tennis ball in the corridor and closed all doors. Then the fat was in the fire!
Usually rather a soft teddy he completely mutated into a beast of prey after the front door slammed shut. Even with leash he fished blackbirds right down of the air or got up a tree faster than the bird expected it.
Not only mice and birds weren't save from him, once without need for him he attacked a German shepherd, which otherwise would have come to close to me and put the dog to flight. (The dog keeper, a police officer, was quite upset ;-)
He even sneaked human beings just for fun, sometimes out of the distance of more than 100 meters. Having reached 2 meters distance he prepared for a leap, but then he toddled closer to receive caressing.

When a zebra finch was guest Felix was interested in the kerchief which laid on the cage. The ideal sleeping place. Schnurri, however, watched the bird and the cage intensively, didn't see a chance and left the room ill-humored. Mugo checked his chance, too, considered a strategy and attacked: feint with the left, catch with the right.
And to an adult carp he jumped into the basin on the spot in order to look closer at the fish.

At night we often were on the way for hours and kilometers. (The question is who took care of whom ;-)

Pumuckl

Do you really want to take my armchair?!

Einstein junior among cats. Cats can learn be watching someone. But with Pumuckl (name of a goblin, a famous German cartoon figure), the tomcat out of the animals' home, it was extremely constituted. He learned very fast, almost casually, and he immediately proofed it in practice.

Each of our cats knew somehow how a door opens. But Pumuckl opened a door within seconds by jumping onto or against the door handle. This knowledge he already brought with from the animals' home and he disappeared at his first day within one minute after he had opened three doors and had found his way from the second floor to the front door. Obviously we had left a good impression on him, because after 2½ days he sat in front of the (locked ;-) front door and asked loudly mewing for coming in.

Pumuckl touched a meal unknown to him only after one had »pre-tasted« it under his critic view. He learned to open taps, but didn't close them unfortunately.
But almost incredible things he achieved during after-dinner nap with grandpa. When grandpa slept, but the radio tootled on loud, we just turned down the volume. Anyhow Pumuckl had seen it and turned the volume wheel of the radio with his head. By chance? After a short period he had learned more: he could switch off the radio! I stand close to it as he purposeful pressed the (well, rather big) off switch with his paw. I didn't believe my eyes.

Tom

Engraved in mind and soul. Tom came as little kitten to us and shared his life 17½ years with us. And enriched our ones. (So close that one would eat from the same plate, if one didn't take care ;-)

In Memoriam Tom

His favorite toys were lump sugar and string beans. One day it happened »by chance« that one pod landed on the hanging cupboard and all jump bases were blocked. Tom checked them all - no chance. He looked at me. Again he tried to find a jump base. No success. Rounding the sideboard he came to me, meowed at me and pretended to try to jump on my shoulder. I didn't move. Thus he tried his luck one more time without help. Unsuccessfully. Opposite to me he sat down on the sideboard. Breathed deeply several times almost like a human being, who is intensively thinking. Then a jerk moved through his body. Purposefully he came to me, bit in the sleeve of my sweater and pulled me with energy through half of the kitchen below the cupboard, jumped on my shoulder and then on the cupboard.

His trust was very deep. Once when he happened to capture the milk jug completely and suffered from diarrhea he had licked his bottom until it was sore. It looked terrible. The coat had to be cut with a pair of nail scissors, the partly discharging spots be disinfected and be dried with paper handkerchiefs and cotton wool, and the whole be tended with baby cream. At first he whined and cried during the procedure like a little child. Then he carefully sat down on the floor sniffed at his belly and - started to purr.
The next time he tipped over immediately as soon as one showed a white kerchief or cotton wool and presented his bottom in order to be cleaned.
When he had burned his paws at the stove during a fiery hounding he trustfully accepted aid and ointment of his people. Then he had got the hang of it. First I thought he was checking the thermal updraft of the ceramic glass cooktop with his whiskers, but no, he didn't, he ascertained whether the red warning light was off!

When he lies in wait for mice people were unwanted. Until I caught first a mouse and then even a blackbird under his critical view. (I shooed the bird into some bushes to got it entangled; later out of his sight I let them free again.)
Afterwards I had the impression I was not only tolerated but even wanted. He even reacted on my pointing finger.

The communication worked verbal and on view contact. A longing view to the fly on the ceiling probably meant »It's your turn, brain acrobat!«. And when I fetched the towel purring started at once.
Or the angry meow when it rained. Sometime he knew what to do and he let accompany himself with an umbrella on his control tour round the house and through the garden. Always taking care that the umbrella was just over him. And in winter the same with snow shovel, when it was my duty to make a beaten path through the territory and to all »spray spots«. Well, the cat forms his people, too.

He exactly knew the vulnerability of human beings. In the morning he had to go to his toilet and he tried to wake up someone. First he meowed at the door, then he put his paw upon one's cheek in an extremely careful manner. (It felt like somebody would touch one with an eiderdown feather.) Finally he bit carefully in one's nose tip.
Also the »circus act« was amazing. He jumped down 2.5 or 3 meters (~ 3 yards) from the old apple tree directly on my shoulder. Carefully without using his claws, what made no problems, even if stripped to the waist.

He searched for his parent persons, when they were overdue. He knew where in the house at what time they should have been and he even recognized their voices on the phone.

Cat Sharing

Each of these neighbor cats Ramses, Micki, Mephisto and Maunzer regularly grace us with their presence.

Maunzer - wild, fluffy, itchy feeted

While red-striped Maunzer comes by day for sleeping, eating and huddling, but then is on tour for weeks or months the other ones just visit us only, but regularly.

White Micki strays through the garden at least once a day, doesn't appreciate to be touched, but gives one an answer when spoken to. An open cellar window may just invite her to roam through the cellar. When her mistress was in hospital for some days she wandered around mewling and was on top of the world when we administer to her needs.

Whitetip tomcat Ramses

Black Mephisto lives up to his name. Like a shadow he flits through the garden, only his green eyes glow, when he looks at one.

Striped Ramses with white tail tip vociferously asks for being let in in front of a cellar window, when he hears or sees somebody behind it. Sometimes he climbs into open first floor windows and looks for love and consolation. Especially when his folks are out, for hours he follows you everywhere or lies or sleeps on one's knees or one's chest. Or he nestles on the scanner or the keyboard. (So if you happen to find some senseless characters... ;-)

It is interesting to watch the social behavior of the cats among themselves. Newcomers are made aware of the individual territories even by hissing. But because the human partners get along well with one another it doesn't take a long time and it skips to the cats. After a short period even the tomcats visit themselves and pick them up for a tour.

It's knowing that your door is always open and your path is free to walk.

(Glen Campbell in Gentle on my mind)