Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Cupid (An Instigator)

Sue (Pen & Lucy's mom) asked about how Cupid's behavior has changed since Henry went blind and what she does during Henry's meltdowns. I have made this a full post since there is history that also needs to be told. So pull up a chair and get comfortable as the long windedness is about to begin.

I will actually answer the last question first since that is short. Cupid really just looks at Henry with cat disgust when he gets all anxious and melty. Sometimes she will go outside and as long as he does not invade her space during his tantrums she pretty much just rolls her eyes and ignores him.

Explaining Cupid's behavior, however, does require going back in time. When we first got Cupid it was just Cupid. She was the lone cat in the pre OBP household. Then a little while later she became a sister to Lou, a boy bunny. This did not thrill Cupid, but eventually she grew to be ok with him. When it was just Cupid and even when it was Cupid & Lou, Cupid was an extremely affectionate cat. Very loving. Very lap cat-ish. She was playful and friendly, welcomed guests and if you were allergic to her then she was even more attentive to you. And when we say playful, it did not take us long to realize that when the tag on her door at the pound read "plays with anything" it did not lie. We would have to tie our shoes in secret just so that we could get them tied at all. The laces were a thrill for her! But the coolest thing about Cupid that you don't see in most cats is that she played fetch! She didn't just fetch small toys, she fetched a full sized feather duster. It was crazy. She was 2 years old when we got her in 2000 and she was still such a kitten! For the best part of 2 years, Cupid and Lou alone ran the show. They were HAPPY! I have had many people tell me that they would get a cat IF they could be guaranteed it would be like Cupid. Cupid is truly awesome.

Enter Benjamin one day and Henry the next. Two small puppies full of energy and draining of a human's time and attention. This does not make for happy kitty. The rabbit was a bit better about this as he had been around quite diverse surroundings most of his life. Cupid was still sweet and loving but she stopped sleeping on our bed (since now the boys were there and dare they touch her!). We had to move her food bowl to a higher level otherwise THOSE DOGS would eat her food. So, she slowly started to resent them. The pugs took away her happy home as she saw it. Cupid was still a great cat but she is not so great that she's one of "those" cats that cozies up to dogs and hugs up to other "animals", as if! As the boys (and Cupid) aged she realized that Benny was really her problem. He was kind of a cat chaser (eh, he didn't so much chase her as he just wanted an uninterrupted opportunity to sniff her butt; really that is all he wanted, just a sniff and the sniff was never to be had). Poor Cupid. Poor Benny. And then poor Henry was guilty by default. He came along with Ben, looked just like him, smelled mostly like him, so from Cupid's vantage point, Henry was the same as Ben just minus the sniffs. Cupid would give the boys a whack or two, a moderate hiss, turn tail and run away. This left Cupid viewing her old favorite peeps as traitors. She would forgive us if we could give her some alone time. And she did get some when the boys slept (not on our laps).

Then we moved to Florida. Cupid was in hog heaven! In Maryland, Cupid was a house cat but sometimes went out on a leash. In Florida she now had a much bigger house, a screened in lanai where she could see stuff but the stuff couldn't get to her and then a fenced in back yard where she was pretty safe from most stuff. And she knew that if she needed to get away, she would run in through the pet door to get the lanai and if she needed to get safer, again, pet door to house. So, Florida has really agreed with her. The boys were less puppy like and mostly kept to themselves but she still never really came back to our laps or bed with us, though. But then we brought home Luna! Oh, this was about all she could take. She just constantly looked at us with an expression on her face that read "Seriously? ANOTHER one?" Yeah, sorry Cupid. Cupid really did not like Luna's bark. And in Cupid's defense, Luna's bark could be shrill. But for the most part, Luna didn't "bother" Cupid. Yet still, one more dog to take a lap and thus Cupid gets no lap.

We are up to Cupid, Ben, Henry and Luna. Enter Sol. That is really when the cat's head just started spinning. (Oh and Sol WAS a total cat chaser!) With the 3 she could not believe it and now this 4th one. She thought we not only plum lost our minds but that she was never getting a lap back. All she wanted was a lap. A lap. A simple lap. A dogless lap. A lap without dogs nearby even. But that was probably not going to happen again any time soon. So Cupid became a little standoffish. She was still friendly and loving but she was not always "on you" like she used to be. You could tell that she missed us though.

Ah, take a deep breath, go potty, get a drink of water. Do what you need to do and come on back because now we are getting into how Cupid's behavior has changed.

You see for the most part Cupid has ignored the pugs. Sure, every once in while they cross paths and someone runs the stop sign but for the most part it has been peaceful. But now, Cupid kind of picks on Henry. I am not sure if picks on him is quite the right term but she does instigate him. We are not entirely convinced that Cupid is fully aware that Henry is blind. For Cupid, the biggest change came when we uncrated Henry. Now that he has free roam of the house when we are gone means that she has to share her roaming space with an uncrated dog. The biggest thing that this means is that she has kind of turned into Ben! All's Cupid wants is to sniff Henry! Cupid will use Henry's sleeping time while we are gone to get in free sniffs. What happens, however is that this tends to do the worst thing! It wakes the sleeping dog! (Hasn't she ever heard the phrase, let sleeping dogs lie?) Here is the full scene: Henry is sleeping, Cupid gets up in Henry's face or ears and just starts sniffing him, Henry wakes up startled since Cupid's whiskers are tickling his whiskers and boom, he's awake! He wakes up with a jerk and this spooks Cupid who then baps at and hisses at Henry (who really is oblivious EXCEPT that he knows he's been awakened by something tickly). So, Cupid literally fusses at Henry for HER waking him up! It makes no sense. And it is not like she has only done this once or twice. She does this regularly. I watch her on the camera. She totally disturbs him with the intent on waking him up. But consistently she is surprised that she slyly awoke him and is MAD that he woke up and scared her. I have not pegged the reason for this. We have talked about this often. But we are just not sure of her motives. Does she want him to be awake? Is she just messing with him? Why would she do this so often? She has never seemed like a trouble maker before. And she has never really had anything against Henry. I am pretty sure she is not unhappy that B&L are gone. Henry only sometimes enjoys couch time so she is back to having a free lap and will even stay there if Henry is there. So it really truly is a mystery to us what her motivation is to wake him and ultimately scare her own self in the process. This is the way that she has changed the most. She's kind of a little troublemaker. And she's 17! That's like 96 in people years! How many 96 year old trouble makers do you know?! The only thing that we can consider is that she's just making up for all the years when she was so outnumbered. And it really has nothing to do with him being blind. If he bumps into something she just looks at him as if he is a stupid klutz not as a dog with a disability. But who knows? Maybe just him being blind makes her stomach churn.

I have often wanted to fuss at her over the camera (since the camera has 2 way sound) but in the off chance that Henry hears me fussing at her pre-waking him up then I am the one that has awoken the sleeping dog. He occasionally will sleep through her sniffs but it is rare. But if she gets fussed at she does head the warning. She is probably just bored. Grr.

Lastly, Cupid does not cut Henry ANY slack. If he bumps into her or steps on her tail or even gets in her path she will totally give him the cat business. Between bapping him when he runs into her and spitting at him when he steps on her tail, Henry really cannot catch a break in Cupid's world.#badkitty

#IsItTomorrowYet? #ThatWasLong #WhatWasTheOriginalQuestion? #MakeTomorrow'sPostShort