Sunday, December 15, 2019

The World Out of Joint


Cats love their routines (right up to the moment they change them). Tucker is no exception. The roly poly lies mainly on a chair at the dining table. While he uses the other two chairs, he prefers the middle one, farthest from the wall. This is convenient for watching me eat and begging food from me.


Raleigh, for his part, is becoming ever more confident (though he still scurries from me in sudden fear now and then). He has spent a short part of the night on the bed, with me and three other cats, twice now, and sleeps there at other times of the day. He has also slumbered on a dining table chair more frequently than used to be the case.


One evening last week, when Tucker occupied one of the other chairs, Raleigh jumped up on the middle chair. My sausage-cat doesn’t care for Peachy’s proximity but is slowly adapting himself to the inevitable. He evinced no anxiety over Raleigh sleeping in ‘his’ chair. No anxiety until he observed that I was about to sit at the table with some tea and a snack, that is.


Tucker needed his usual chair to sit in and lean close to me, both to make it clear that he wanted some of my snack (whatever it was; it didn’t matter) and to be close enough for the quick grab if something were offered. But Peachy, with his growing confidence, wasn’t about to move, even when I walked close by. Tucker became upset. Human food was in the offing, and his place in the proper chair had been usurped.


He wandered about the table, he jumped up on the two vacant chairs, he jumped down, he cried in increasing panic; he even leaped onto the table itself. Sitting in the only available chair after I claimed one would have been no good: it would have been as far away from me (and my food) as one could get at the table.


The world is a precarious balance for cats. Everything must be just so. If it’s not the way it should be, tempers rise, stress builds and all life is threatened. In some ways, cats and people are identical… Fortunately, with my human reasoning skills, my genius for compromise and accommodation, my desire to do the best for all concerned, I was able to arrive at a solution. I took my refreshments and sat on the couch in the sitting room.


18 comments:

  1. Well of course you did John. :) Whatever it takes to keep the cats happy, right?

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  2. Your solution made me laugh out loud. :-D

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  3. Poor Tucker! It fascinates me how all cats are such sticklers for routine. They have a sense of proper etiquette which rivals anything seen at the court of Louis XIV.

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  4. Oh yea, moving someone or anyone isn't an option!

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  5. I love the way you handled the situation. Have you ever thought of becoming a diplomat??

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    1. I think anyone who has multiple cats would qualify...

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    2. Diplomat, psychologist, Prime Minister, concierge, cook, janitor, court jester...

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    3. In all offices, appointed for life...

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  6. Of course you did, there was no other solution! Raleigh slept through all of Tucker's anxiety.

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    1. I noticed Peach's undisturbed state, too. He's getting better and better.

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  7. You should look at my face right now!!! HUGE face- filling grin. Been there...have done that back when there was another queen here. And to this day, as well as the rest of the CB. You are right. And we so-called owners move to accommodate the real rulers of the Household. Undine above here, is right. Enjoyed that true comment she made.

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  8. HaHa! The first thing that came to mind
    was 'Musical Chairs'..are you playing
    any music in the background John..and
    switching it off and on..! :).

    You did the right thing in the end,
    though l suspect you were followed...!
    Everyday with a pussy~cat is different..
    And the number you have..1.2.3.4..HeHe!
    I forget now..! Bless!x

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  9. Poor Tucker! He must have been so frustrated. Good of you to leave the room so he could be close to you! The things we do for our furbabies.

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  10. There is little to doubt that cats have their mind set on a way to do things and that is that. Even a single cat household like mine, Precious has her mind and ways set and does not like it different. Unless of course, she is the one changing up a bit.

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  11. There is a book called, "Who Moved My Cheese?", about how we get into ruts, then our world falls apart when something makes us get out of the rut! Tucker, like all of our cats, likes his rut very much, thank you, and doesn't want any of his cheese moved either!

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  12. That is such a good intervention and it most likely worked well. We try and keep things stable here but there are always those who cause an uproar by their unpredictable behaviors Hee Hee

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