CONFESSIONS OF A CAT-SITTER
Chris Pascoe tells of two cats who struggle to co-habit.
There’s been a bit of friction between two cats in my care recently. This pair have been thrown together by pure chance because, having had houses to themselves for many years, their owners moved in together... and so did George and Millie, the tabby and Persian respectively of our story. Apart from a happy naming coincidence (who could have predicted George and Mildred), things haven’t been totally harmonious.
I suppose when previously single members of any species — cat, human, or otherwise — who are accustomed to their own space, whether that involves sofas or litter trays, then move in together, there has to be a period of adaptation. And inevitably, at some point, something one does will upset the other, and a domestic ensues.
In the case of George and Mildred, this ‘something’ was that George ate Mildred’s bed. Guaranteed to cause friction that I suppose, eating someone’s bed. If somebody ate my bed, I’m pretty sure I’d struggle not to at least bring the subject up. Of course, eating beds isn’t normal cat behaviour but George has previous in this respect — he’s never owned a cat bed for more than a week, always clawing and ripping them to pieces and, in part at least, eating them.And so it was that when Mildred moved in, within a few days, her bed had vanished. George had eaten it.
There followed a short period of sulking.As Persians have just about the most miserable faces on Earth (the exception being my octogenarian father’s), it’s not easy to surmise whether they’re sulking or not, but Mildred’s overall behaviour suggested she wasn’t at all happy with George, who was oblivious to her displeasure of course, having a typically cat-like level of empathy, only slightly higher than a brick.
But when Mildred started hissing every time she saw him, George slowly began to realise that either he’d become a pantomime baddie, or he was in a spot of bother. This became more apparent when she took to slapping him round the face whenever he walked past her. In fact, the whole atmosphere became totally toxic by the time I began looking after them a few weeks back (and no, not because I began looking after them).
All this was explained to me in a note the day I took over their care, so that was nice. I was clearly going to have my work cut out here. But then things took an unexpected turn for the better or worse, depending on whether your name was George or Chris Pascoe.
Mildred hadn’t met me before as I’d only ever looked after George and as is probably the case with many people meeting me for the first time, she took an instant, aggressive dislike to me.
So livid did Mildred become when I showed my face that she seemed to forget George was a problem at all. In fact, George and Mildred seemed to come to some sort of truce, as long as George showed no objection to Mildred attacking my ankles.
My wife had to eventually take over, so as not to annoy Mildred, but happily, not before the cats became quite comfortable in each other’s company. I’ve heard, though, that Mildred’s getting a new bed soon. I just really hope it’s inedible...
I was clearly going to have my work cut out here.