fergie's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- one smart pussy One Smart Pussy It�s the same way when you�re the proud caretaker for any animal. People inform you they have their lizard trained to use the toilet yet the soiled newspaper on the bathroom floor tells a different story, dogs never seem to perform their special tricks for an audience unless it�s licking their balls, and cats don�t do anything except stare blankly like they�re trying to bore through you with their eyes. �But just yesterday she was jumping through this flaming hoop,� the now not-so-proud and rather defensive �parent� will tell you as they accidentally set their pets tail on fire and have to chase them through the house with an extinguisher. Of course, my kitty really is smart. She talks. I don�t mean she curls up in my lap and says, �Hey man, what�s going on?� Rather, she meows in different ways to communicate her thoughts. Perhaps to the untrained ear her �I want food� meow sounds exactly like her �I want attention� meow, but simple observation of the tone and length of her cry clearly demonstrates a difference. Last night, for example, she needed to fill me in on what was happening in our apartment. Being very territorial, she does not like guests in her home unless she knows I have invited them. If it�s another animal she beats the crap out of them anyway, but that�s just because she doesn�t like competition. For people, though, she is very concerned when someone new comes in if I am not accompanying them. So when my roommate had some friends in from out of town crash at our place for the night, you can imagine she was not pleased. After our usual hello-daddy�s-home at the door, she followed me into my room. I had no more than taken off my shoes when she started in with her little panic meow. This is the high pitched and shaky meow that lets me know something is going on that she feels needs my immediate attention. Sometimes its because the front door has been left open, or because the hairdryer is going off in the other room. �I don�t like it, make it stop!� she says. Sort of. In this case, I asked her what was wrong and she ran out into the living room. She�s like Lassie that way. She�ll run a bit, stop to make sure you�re behind her, meow again and continue on her way. Following kitty into the living room, I saw she had perched herself on top of our guest�s luggage. Wide-eyed and tense, she looked down at the bags and then turned back to me with an expectant look. Meow! �See?� she was saying, �There are strange people here, make it stop!� I told her it was okay and gave her a pat on the head. �We have some friends staying with us tonight kitty,� I said calmly, plucking her claws out of the suitcase material she had in a death grip. �They�ll only be here for the night and won�t bother you.� After glaring at the bags for a few moments longer, she was content and moved onto the kitchen, where she informed me she was tired of her current food and thought I should make her a hamburger. Now that�s one smart pussy. 10:21 p.m. - Aug. 29, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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