As mentioned in my last post, we have been blessed with another cat and poor Bitty is just desperate to pet her (or him? I still haven’t checked.) But she hasn’t yet touched the cat, and will not touch the cat, until I deem her mature enough to handle this kitten without causing any serious long-term injuries. It may be a while. Since the day I caught her throwing one of our cats into the air, Bitty has been banned from handling any of our animals. In her defense I should add that she wasn’t being mean, just having fun and assuming the cat must be having fun, too. If it hadn’t have been so serious, it would have been funny. But it did remind me of another encounter between Bitty and the cat that WAS funny and I thought I’d share…
One night several months ago my husband was awakened by a sound he couldn’t quite place and got up to find Bitty, who was 3 at the time, walking slowly down the hall followed by a Ragdoll kitten we’d recently been given. Upon reaching the living room she abruptly turned, raced down the hallway into her bedroom, leaped onto her bed, and climbed under the covers.
She remained there a few moments before again exiting the bed to repeat her slow walk down the hall. As before, when she reached the living room she turned, ran to her room and leaped onto the bed.
Although the kitten followed her each time, Bitty didn’t seem to be playing a game and appeared very serious about the entire affair. Puzzled, my husband watched this bizarre scene repeated a third time before questioning her.
“Bitty, what are you doing?” he whispered.
“Abba, that cat keeps licking me!” she cried, exasperated.
At this statement, Bitty’s strange behavior suddenly became clear. Our kitten loved to lick people’s feet and Bitty was trying desperately to get away from him! Convinced that she could lure him away from her room and leave him behind by outrunning him, she was repeating her circuit again and again.
Thankfully, our kitten is now a giant cat and has left behind his nocturnal ways, but many were the days I would wake up to find him locked in the bathroom after a particularly frustrating night with our children. But while that solution worked much better, I’ll always remember the more creative technique practiced by our 3 year old the night she tried to lure him away and leave him behind.
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