Bugs started this.
Didn’t last long, though. Fangie got rambunctious. Bugs prairie-dog’d him. Fangie ran off. I praised Bugs.
This was yesterday. This morning the same pattern repeated itself — only this time, Bugs bumped Fang off the raffia mat, paraded around basking in my praise, and then stalked off to attend important business in the other room. Now Fang’s grooming on the raffia mat, Bugs is elsewhere, and I get to write this post in peace and quiet.
Pee Ess: Don’t tell me, I know. I need to clean the window. Hopefully those drips were left when Fangie was still sick.
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Anita loves cats. This must be because she, too, has had nine lives. She’s been dancing since she could walk, she was a commercial artist and advertising producer, she earned a third-degree black belt in Aikido, she is a drummer with the Afrique Aya Dance Company, she is a research attorney, and she’s a meditator and a devoted student of Nonviolent Communication. She also spent one lifetime sidelined with a devastating back injury in 1992. Since then – FELDENKRAIS METHOD® to the rescue. The FELDENKRAIS METHOD is all about dreaming concretely – thinking intelligently and independently by way of a gracious and kind physicality. The work affords all who study it a process by which to reach, with movement, into the mind and the heart, to make nine lives into one whole being.
Didn’t last long, though. Fangie got rambunctious. Bugs prairie-dog’d him. Fangie ran off. I praised Bugs.
I feel a little bit of love in the picture.
I know, I do too. I can’t help myself. But I think it’s important to help myself. We can’t be sure that’s really what’s going on — and from others’ comments, I think perhaps not . . . .
Grooming is progress. They are bonding. Peace, love & purrs…
I really hope so, Layla. It’s my heart’s desire . . . .
Looks like introduction time is over. They may get along or not, but it won’t be because Fang is a stranger anymore.
This is so helpful. But — does familiarity breed contempt? Time will tell?
Interests can change, or energy levels and what was fun might be less fun for one of them in a while. But it seems to me like this is acceptance of Fang as a member of the family. It could be your sister that you are very close too or the crazy uncle who gets on your nerves down the line, but family all the same.
Cassie was a lot more tolerant of Gus when she was 15 and he was a kitten, than a few years later when he was 3 and she was 18. Even without malice on Gus’ part he was too much at times as she slowed down.
So clear. So helpful. In law we call this “case by case.” I think in plain English this means: Pay attention to what is. Circumstances change. There are no hard-and-fast rules. Stay light on your feet. Like that.
YEAH!!! What great progress. (and don’t worry about the windows – you should see ours – MOL)
Really want to the fights to be over, though. They keep breaking out. Are they getting shorter, though, and easier for me to persuade them to let go? Maybe . . . . Time will tell. I keep saying that.
If I made an assumption based on this photo alone and nothing else, it would seem to suggest they will eventually become good friends. I can see — if not love, then at least tenderness. P.S. Your comment did come through on the RPO blog — we have to moderate the comments, so they don’t show up right away.
Well but that’s just it. There is more; the photo is only one moment. Boy do I ever want them to be friends. But Fangie is really a handful — a biter! (Glad the comment come through — there was something funny going on tho — or perhaps it was just registering my google account first, and then letting me post . . . . I wish the world was using WordPress. But I love my google and blogspot friends too, like you . . . . )
Let him bite Bugs, and not you! Bugs has thick furry skin and will bop him if he goes over the top
Dadgummit, he bit or clawed Bugs on the nose! And I bop him too. Can you imagine? He bit me on the septum and wouldn’t let go. Man that really hurt. He’s just GOT to learn!
Ouch! My human always says that nose and elbow bites hurt the most…
Elbow bites! Have yet to experience that pleasure. Groan.
Looks like they’re buddies now. Any further fussing and fighting is just room mates working out the details.
Enjoy.
Waiting to enjoy. Still not fully breathing . . . . It’s the fights. And the biting.
Have you thought to check with Chrystal? Maybe she has some pointers.
She must have handled ‘Trex’ biting somehow.
Funny that I see something different in the photo… It’s Bugs showing Fangie who’s the boss. Bugs is saying that he’s in charge, and it’s his job to make sure Fangie is well-groomed and presentable. And if Fangie steps out of line, Bugs is ready to put him in his place. Bugs is alpha kitty. Yay!
Good work, Bugs! Don’t forget the ear tufts – they tend to collect dust bunnies!
I think you’re right, mckmf. Bugs seems really focused on that “in charge” thing. He doesn’t seem annoyed about Fangie — just focused on impressing on Fang who is running this ship. And after all. As buffed a boy as Bugs is, he is not about to tolerate an ungroomed representative of the house. It would be unfitting and reflect poorly on him. Never mind the windows. They are not important. It’s the presentation of the living beings in the house that concerns him. He always has his eye on the ball, after all.
Saying that ‘Your place in the house is right under me’ is quite an improvement from ‘get this alien thing the hell out of my house’ !
Absolutely! Someday I hope that Kitty gets past the ‘get this alien thing the hell out of my house’ stage with me…
Amen!
P.S. they’re also very cute.
Aren’t they though.
My peep almost NEVER cleans the windows so, I can tell you most assuredly, we cats don’t really mind.
Good to know, Nerissa.
awwwwwww
Yes. I can’t help myself.
prairie-dog’d him.. MOL!! Love it. Love all of it! They’re doing great!
Dirty windows?? That just means you have kitties! Kitties do not like clean windows so they do their best to keep them dirtied up so they know the glass is there and don’t go crashing into it when they want to attack any critters on the other side!
Glad to know there’s some practical reason for the drips, Andrea, thanks for enlightening us! Can you believe my weirdness? I left Bugs’s little oblong nose-blotches build up for months upon months because I thought they were — cute. This is what my life has become. But cuteness, by me, doesn’t extend to rivulets. Only oblongs. This is my aesthetic. This is my madness.
I’m loving this
))
Pee Ess wasn’t going to mention the windows!!!
That was very tactful of you. I appreciate that.
Rumblemum loves it when we do that too. Humans are soooo weird.
Aren’t they. If only they understood us. The world would be so much better.
Beautiful. I’m so glad they are starting to get along.
Thank you, Langley, welcome to the blog. Great to have you along. I really do think things improve — or at least change — daily.
Yup, Bugs is saying “I’m top cat here, and you, Fang (no longer the alien), are below me”. And, yes, feline relationships change all the time.
Ah HA, L&T! More and more confirmation that’s what’s going on. On my end I’m trying to stay floating like a butterfly. Leaving the sting like a bee to Fang. Must admit to a bias for the butterfly.
Step by step! Your windows look just like mine by the way. Normal.
Normal. I never thought I’d be glad to appreciate normal. Thank you for the company, as ever, Waz.
I agree with the comments that see the picture as Bugs showing Fangie who’s boss. But this is ok, because it’s how nature runs its course in the wild, right? It seems that you have a lot of expectation to see them being friends… I’m not so sure you should! (ouch). Cats’ relationships do change all the time, but very rarely they appear to be what we humans see as friendship. Maybe the fights will never stop, just diminish. And that doesn’t mean anything bad. Just go along for the ride and let them figure out their “thing”. Well, that’s my humble 2 cents, anyway….
Ivy, I appreciate your input very much. I’m treating this like a lab experiment, so open-mindedness, and disproof of expectations in favor of what’s really going on, is my mantra. My experience with mantras, tho, is that the focus-calibration is hard for me to keep it where I want it to be. Things in my consciousness keep devolving into old stuff! Where magical thinking reigns supreme. Gar.
I know! That happens to me. All. The. Time.
Maybe this is why I was looking out for your doing the same… Cause I identify with it so completely. As long as you keep your mantra going, you’re doing the best you can and that is all you can ever do. Keep up the good job! And have a great Sunday!
Hi four! With you watching my back, I feel confident! Sunday forward. You too.
Hi there! I really, really don’t think you have anything to worry about. Cats will squabble, but that first picture of the grooming is a pretty good indication that they’ll at least tolerate each other. (I sometimes think that cats like a good tussle with one another, as long as someone isn’t a terrible bully.)
Hah, I’m with the other posters about the window… and have no room to talk. Someone looked at my front door and asked me if I had kids. I was confused until I noticed they were talking about the marks on the glass. They had no idea of what to say when I told them that those marks were dog snot.
Does seem that way, Melanie. I’m heartened that after I finished the next post, Fang jumped Bugs — playfully — even after one of their scary shouting-fur-flying fights. You know what? The windows are way down there on my priorities and, it sounds like, yours too and a couple of others while we’re at it. Good show.
I didn’t notice the window, until you said it! This is such a beautiful picture of nature & soul. I love it.
Hi Words! Nice to see you back. Isn’t that always the way? Ignore it and it just ain’t there! Until somebody else points it out . . . .
Wow, what a story to read in the posts from the last couple of weeks!
As for the first photo, I have a different interpretation: Bugsy is attempting to annoy Fangie so that Fangie will leave the coveted cat-bird seat. Did it by chance work? >:-D
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Oh. Gosh. I left this unanswered — a pity, Lahg, because I think this is exactly what happened!