In Like a Lion

Sunny has adapted well to the routine. She no longer exhibits so many symptoms of PTSD. Now she likes being petted. She is still an indoor cat, though she has been outside a couple of times. She found the underside of the back porch and the hole in the fence. But she came home quickly at the sound of food. 

 

She discovered the other cat in the refrigerator door and the TV when it is off. I keep exercise mats back there and when I reached over the TV to pull them out her worldview shifted. But she accepts the TV for whatever it is. Much of my perception of cats as pets is based on Fantastic Planet, an animated adult presentation about humans on a planet orbiting Sirius. (Wikipedia here. ) That is from the cat’s point of view, perhaps. 

 

From our side, I consider Cordwainer Smith’s “Game of Rat and Dragon” and Fritz Leiber’s “Spacetime for Springers.” Larry Niven’s Ringworld Trilogy had Speaker-to-Animals, and we did have cats named Squeaker-to-Animals and Kzinti Warfish, but the cat(s) in that series are  anthropomorphized. 

 

Previously on Necessary Facts

 

Green Lantern Outshines Green Hornet 

Captain America 

When Worlds Collide 

Superman: American Alien 

New Cat: Sunny

We knew that Désirée had feline leukemia when we adopted her four years ago. After she passed away, we waited a few months to take in a family member. Sunny is also a rescue. PTSD is the easiest diagnosis. 

Laurel got her from a rescue lady with a clouder of her own. Sunny's kittens had been taken away from her and she spent her time with her nose in the corner of a closet. We got her here and put her in a closet. It took about two weeks for her to settle in under the bed. She was good about the litter box and always cleaned her food dish so like you just put it back in the cupboard. But she was tragically aloof. She still does not like to be petted. But now she does come out to play with us, chasing balls. 

She watched me hide the ball under the rug.

She comes into the living room and watches TV fairly intently. We moved her food from the bathroom to the bedroom and now into the living room. She still does not like to spend too much time in the kitchen, but does explore. She found the back door and sniffed at it and her back went up. She likes attention from a distance. And she like to play ball. Not only does she chase them, of course, but she bats them back and has a backhand move. Last night, she slept on the bed and did not spring off and go under when one of us shifted. Recovery is a process.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Only a Cat 

Désirée (Miss Kitty) 

Fossils and Behaviors 

Plenty of Time When We Get Home   

Désirée (Miss Kitty)

We put our cat to sleep last night. We adopted her from the Pets Alive shelter here in Austin on August 29, 2016. She seemed close to two years old then and was diagnosed feline leukemia positive. 

She was an indoor cat. She was content to be in her own space. She liked to sit on her tower and watch the street. She did hang out on the porch, often under it. A couple of times, she got through the fence to the neighbor's yard; and a couple of times she jumped into our front yard. The most interesting moment was when she was nowhere to be found in the house or in back. We found her in the front yard. But the front window screen was secured. Apparently, she pushed her way out and it snapped back into place behind her. 

She came into my office every morning to be petted. Then I would feed her while I made my coffee. At night, she sat with us and watched TV. 

The shelter listed her as Desiree. I liked the name for the 1954 film biography of Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary that starred Jean Simmons with Marlon Brando as Napoleon Bonaparte and Michael Rennie as Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Laurel called her Miss Kitty, which was also okay with me for the Gunsmoke leading lady played by Amanda Blake. 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Only a Cat

Mortality

Reflections on the Passing of a Comrade

Only a Cat

Goofy was the last cat to live with us. When Laurel rescued him from the wheelwell inside a truck hood, he might have been a month to six weeks old. When he died 20 November 2015, he was 19.  He had stopped eating four days before. He had been losing weight, down to 9 at the end, from almost 20. He had a lot of muscle.

He dodged at least nine bullets. The first was shortly after my wife and daughter brought him home. The vent cover was off in my daughter’s room, and Goof jumped in. They were panicked and called a furnace guy immediately. Apparently, it is a known problem, because he told them that cats seldom make it all the way to the furnace, and they should check the ducts all the way down. They did.  

A dozen years later, he and I were sitting on the back porch in another house. I saw a motion. A skunk. Goofy’s hairs went out and his back went up. I said, “Goof, you don’t want to do that.” But he did. He was sorry. We washed him off with hydrogen peroxide, but he still smelled for a few days.

Goof always walked kind of pigeon-toed. Laurel thought that he would have made a good "Waiting" icon for Windows 95, like the the Dinosaur.

Goofy always had a furrowed brow; and he seldom purred: he was a cat of constant sorrow.  He was great for head butts and liked having his chin rubbed.  He was an avid reader.

About 2006 or so, a vet told us that Goofy had cancer on his spine. The expensive surgery was the only way to save his life. We did not have that kind of money, and, as it turned out, whatever was on his back was not malignant.

About the time that he met the skunk, he tore several of his back toes. They always were extended and never retracted. We think that he climbed a tree or fence to get away from something, but we were not involved in whatever that was, and could only guess.

"The Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith

Summary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_Rat_and_Dragon

Full text: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29614/29614-h/29614-h.htm

"You pinlighters! You and your damn cats!"

The author known as Cordwainer Smith was a Ph.D. professor of Asiatic studies at John Hopkins University. Like all myth, his science fiction stories are universal, but the special flavor of the alien is attributed to his interest in Chinese literature. He served as an intelligence officer in World War II with the rank of major.  About Paul Linebarger (Cordwainer Smith) here: http://cordwainer-smith.com/