Sylvester has been a little clingy of late.I am used to being woken up at 3am if it rains overnight, being headbutted by a faceful of wet, purring cat - he has discovered that this is the fastest way to get himself dried off.
However, he hasn't been out quite so much recently. I assumed that he was feeling his age... his whiskers have turned completely white and he's finding it harder to jump up on things.
It seems that there is more to it than simple old age. One of my neighbours has a new cat - a sleek, Siamese crossbreed. The newcomer has been asserting his territorial rights, and Sylvester (according to another neighbour) came off worst in a recent spat. No actual damage done, apart from injured pride. However, he has been top cat in the garden for quite a few years, and I suspect that his demotion has hit him hard...
Is it very wrong of me to consider lurking in the garden with a water spray...?
I'd be out there! (Unless you think it would injure his pride more to have his mom out there fighting...)
ReplyDeleteMac:
ReplyDeleteFor years we have kept a squeezy bottle full of water by the back door for just those very eventualities!
Our cat is in the same boat, though; she's sixteen now - and becoming a Very Gumbie Cat...
Get one of those 'Super Soaker' things; then you can achieve the same result as an ordinary spray, but without leaving the house !
ReplyDelete(and you may tell him from me that he's a very elegant cat indeed : even if he does wear a dog collar !
ReplyDeleteI ought to mention that I'm in a block of flats (albeit on the ground floor) and don't have direct access to the back garden.
ReplyDeleteThe cat gets out through a catflap in the kitchen window - this is actually at the side of the block, and I can't even see the back garden through it...
My neighbour (the one with the new cat) does look out onto the back garden, and she might not be too happy to see me preparing to squirt water at her little angel...
Mac:
ReplyDeleteWe do squirt out the cat-door occasionally!±
Another squeezy bottle of water here too...
ReplyDeleteMac;
ReplyDeleteSylvester looks a brainy type - give HIM a water pistol ?
Then the neighbour can't complain ! ;-)
DM: Are you sure about giving Sylvester the water pistol? Will Sylvester be at risk of getting an ASBO? Of course, that just may give him his street cred. back!
ReplyDeleteSo you want to be headbutted by a sleek Siamese crossbreed as well?
ReplyDeleteI always believed that there was nothing as friendly as a wet Labrador!