Are you a dog person or a cat person? I am a dog person. We have a great dog, Murphy, that we've had since law school. A few years ago, however, we acquired a cat. Jen used to work at a low-cost animal clinic (shocking, no?). The clinic had a million cats that lived there waiting to be adopted. One cat, Tiki, was unlike the other cats. He refused to hang out with the other cats. He preferred to play with the dogs. Because Jen is also a dog person, this quality about Tiki attracted her. So she asked if we could "temporarily" keep him at our house to assist with a slight overcrowding problem at the clinic. I agreed.
When Tiki arrived, he immediately tried to befriend our two dogs. Our spaz dog, Moses, loved it. He had a constant companion. Murphy was not so enamored with the cat. But then Murphy could do without anything or anyone that interferes with her entitlement to everyone's attention. I found that Jen's description of the cat rang true. He was oddly dog-like. Not only in his enjoyment of other dogs, but in his play. He enjoyed wrestling and rough play like our dogs too. And of course, after a couple of months, we took Tiki in.
There's another interesting feature to this cat. He doesn't use a litter box. He goes outside -- just like a dog. That's almost evidence of reincarnation. The downside to this quality is that it means that Tiki has to go outside in the middle of the night. In the summer, that is not a problem because he tends to prefer sleeping on the front porch. But when the temps drop in the late fall and winter, Jen prefers to bring him inside for the night. This generally doesn't affect me because when Tiki has to go out, he bugs Jen. But Jen and Kee are still away. So that means that I am the one who gets the wake-up call. The amazing thing is that Tiki has an internal clock that is so consistent, the government could use it to set the official atomic clock. The last 2 mornings, I have been awakened at 4:34 a.m. EST to let Tiki out. And this isn't a gentle reminder that he needs to go out. This is an annoying array of meows and laps around me like I'm Jericho, and Tiki's determined to collapse my walls. For a perfect visual of this, enjoy this video:
3 comments:
I better stay out of this one. I once had to delete an entire blog about domesticated animals because Amy Fritchman and Justin Boggs were about to seriously shun me.
Growing up we had a never-ending roster of dogs. One would die and we would promptly replace it. I loved each one of them as much or more than the one before but I have to say that I am glad to be pet-less. Levi's allergies are bad and a pet of any kid would only make things worse, so I am off the hook.
Luck.
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