Bob’s Corner
Catty
From our weekly issue dated July 28, 2010
One dictionary defines “catty“ this way: “Slyly mean; saying spiteful or malicious things about somebody, especially in a subtle way.“ Also, “Resembling a cat, especially in being cautious or secretive.“
Those definitions make little sense to me, and I can say that from my vantage point of us having five felines around the house. Except when they“re outside hunting grasshoppers or visiting neighbors. Or doing whatever it is that “fur snakes“ do when they“re roaming.
I have not found kitties to be sly or malicious (well, maybe pushy), and haven“t had one that“s secretive. They definitely are cautious though, which is why they live so long (the nine lives legend).
We“ve had a large number of kit-cats during the years. Some of the names I recall: Half-shot, Peach Nuts, Maui, Boo-Boo, Runner Bean, Carrots, and Walter. Those are just the names I can remember; we“ve had many more whiskered friends. In fact, when we lived in rural San Diego County, we had so many cats on our semiremote half-acre that we couldn“t come up with enough names. Actually, we could have called most of them “Coyote Food.“
Anyway, we recently added Tasha Tiny-Dancer to our stable. She joins sort-of Siamese Bubba (Bubba Big Foot), mostly Bombay Flinty (Flint Eastwood), Tuxedo Jelli (Jellirabbit), and Gray Tiger-Striped Scrappy (Scrappy). Tasha (Muted Calico) is our only female pet, and we“re not looking forward to having her neutered, simply because we have seen so many of our four-legged buds of either gender through the recovery. But it has to be done. She“ll be around 5 months old in early to mid-September, which is when the surgery is planned.
Scrappy continues to serve as her foster Dad, and he is doing a super job teaching her to be a cat. He watches her like a hawk when she“s outside, or when the other furry predators get too close. This especially applies to Jelli, who is a grumpy guy; always hissing and growling at everyone else. You see, he wants to be “only cat.“ Scrappy has chased him away several times, and thoroughly trounced him a few times too. But Jelli never learns.
Actually, that“s about as “catty“ as it gets around here; dictionary definitions notwithstanding.
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