Cat-Rearing

In Curry’s own words:

“Cat-rearing is unlike child-rearing. In the latter, the parents do most of the hard work in raising a human child. In the former, the human parent thinks they are raising/training/house-breaking the cat, but the cat is also training the human. That’s the part I want to focus on. I was already six months old when my mom adopted me, but I wasted no time training her.

I made sure my mom knew that even though I was a cute, soft kitten, I liked to be touched on my own terms. No picking me up and carrying me around like some kind of prize. That was too undignified for me, even in my kittenhood. I let mom know in no uncertain terms (squirming like a fish and back-talking her) that she was not to pick me up. This doesn’t mean I don’t like affection, but it has to be when I want it and how I want it. For the record, I like to sleep next to my mom, but not touching her. And I love to get kisses on the top of my head.

I also trained mom that she needed to stick with a regular schedule for cleaning our litter boxes. I mean, who wants to go into a dirty box? Yuck!! Mom is supposed to clean our boxes once a day on schedule, and I’ll loudly tell her if she’s late to the task, while I lead her to the litterbox area and point out the obvious.

Maybe the most important thing I taught my mom is that what she thinks is hers is really mine. This is particularly true with the laptop. I will walk across the keyboard anytime I want. Mom shouldn’t be disturbed if it causes extra “words” to be typed or windows to be closed. She used to get upset about these things until she realized that I was the boss. Nowadays, I still walk across the keyboard whenever I want, but I make my mom type the blogs for me. I couldn’t be bothered to do all the work myself when I have more important things to do.”

So, that’s Curry’s report on cat-rearing. She really is the boss. I did, however, need a little additional help in raising her and the other cats, especially once Willie came to live with us. Poor Willie was a very dominant stray and while he was lovey-dovey with me immediately, he was not very nice to Zorro and Curry. I found Pam Johnson-Bennett’s cat books to be invaluable resources in getting a new cat started in the home, introducing him to the existing felines, and solving behavior problems. I highly recommend checking them out on Amazon.com and I have listed them in the Curry’s Favorites box on this page.

That’s all for today. Please stay tuned for more from Curry. She has lots of ideas for future blogs including a Siamese heritage interview with her human cousin Christine; her brother Zorro’s misfortune as an allergy-ridden feline; an introduction to her favorite cat-sitter, our neighbor Carlos; and some contemptuous pieces on her pesky little brothers Willie and Grayson.