Monday 26 February 2007

We All Need Smart-ass Cats

tonight for some reason when I showered I closed the bathroom door, after a year I'm still not fully realising I have this room and adjoined bathroom pretty much to myself.

And then I started thinking that Ghostie wasn't sitting on the toilet as he usually does. Opened the door while drying myself and in he ran all miaows and accusations that I've locked him out of my life - and then he communicated what he really wanted. I know his "come on I'm hungry" miaow now, and that was it.

See, back when the house had only one bathroom and I'd put a spa in it, there wasn't yet a curtain around the spa tub which is also the shower. Ghostie would have been two at that time, and he came in and sat just out of spray reach and watched me for a few minutes, then miaowed and when I looked to see what was up, very deliberately began washing himself. ("See? I know what you're doing Ted!")

And so whenever the bathroom door is open, he now comes to make sure I don't get harmed by that water stuff, and he washes himself too. Generally if I haven't fed the cats their evening meal by then, he miaows and calls me to the kitchen. Except the night I didn't have anything for them and said "sorry, nothing tonight". That night he just jumped on the bed at his usual post on the foot end and lay down. He understood me alright...

And then last night when I heard a noise out front and wrapped the towel around me and said "hang on I'm just going to check" - when I got back he was still sitting there waiting for me to brush my hair and finish drying... He understood that too.

Tonight as I said he gave me the Starving Cat Miaow and even though I'd fed them already tonight, why should he need to be hungry? So I said "you want to be fed, right?" and off he took for the kitchen... No communciation gap there either...

And as always he wanted to make sure I knew he appreciated it, even though he was very hungry (must have gotten chased away by the older male, his uncle) he came and rubbed against my leg first and then miaowed from the food bowl to make sure I was watching and gave me the cat love stare. You know the one their face goes all fat and they almost fully close their eyes, it's cat for "I love you and trust you" - so I know how much communication takes place.

Anyway -- just had to write that up because these cats have shown me how intelligent they really are and I still find stuff like that to amaze me every day... If it's not cats then it's chimps using spears to hunt.

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