The Familiar and the Exotic

Cammie’s recovery is complete at last, but her most recent illness, following closely upon the cleaning of the cat-trees (I’m not sure which was the greatest upheaval, in her eyes), has left her with some differences.

Dietically, she has returned to eating more hard-food than soft, which is disappointing to me, as she needs the moisture of the soft-food. I suppose she will eat only so much, and if it is mostly hard kernels, the soft-food will suffer. This was discouraging but not wholly unexpected.

What I find more surprising are changes in her habits. I have already written an entry describing how she is – sometimes – more tolerant of the proximity of her roommates. There is an addendum to that story. The hot weather here continues, and Cammie has taken refuge under the armchairs from time to time. One spot in particular is a favourite resort of Tucker’s, but this day, the princess had claimed it. I wondered how that would affect the roly poly’s leisure. I was taken quite unawares when I saw not only that Tucker had slipped into his spot (well, very close to it, anyway) even with Cammie there, but that the latter did not object.

Then again, Cammie seems to have discovered another comfortable new spot. Specifically, she has taken to lying where I often sit, in a corner of the sitting room couch. This means, of course, as every cat-person knows, that I must find somewhere else. Even when I arrive on the couch first, my little Siamese will periodically jump up on to my lap, which she used to do when she was first growing accustomed to physical contact with me, but rarely did afterward.

It is rather an adventure, living with cats. They are, as I have written before, creatures of habit – until they change those habits. Cammie will still hiss at a cat who is too close to her (across the room is frequently too close), even if that cat is asleep and posing no danger whatsoever. And yet, she may then consent to her personal space being constricted. Bit by bit, the princess is changing. In that she is rather like me, like all humans, altering how we behave, what we do, sometimes imperceptibly. Perhaps that is why so many of us enjoy feline company: these beasts are similar enough to people to be familiar, and different enough to be exotic. Can there be a better description of my Cammie?