Our three cats are amazingly different characters.

Ted, as you all know, is a grumpy, arthritic old thing (she's 16), but in her time she was a real character and is now legendary amongst those who have met her. She was always very interested in what people were doing and would follow her favourite person around for hours, watching and sniffing, but not causing trouble. To this day, if she is outside in the garden she will follow whomever is out there with her and sit nearby if you are busy. Like most cats, she has a finely-tuned sense of justice and honour and would exact Ollie-like punishment on those who displeased her. My favourite story is when her original person, Jonathan, annoyed her, so she urinated in his favourite hat!

The other two are much younger, being almost 8 months old, but right from when they came to live with us at 4 weeks (as foster kittens), they had distinct personalities.

Spock is a boycat - a regular Joe in every respect. He is very concerned with his dignity, except when he forgets and sleeps on his back with his legs every which way. He lives to go outdoors (which he is forbidden to do until he's 16 and arthritic) and throws a spectacular temper tantrum when we're out of doors with Ted and he's stuck looking at us through the window. He is not too keen on playing with us, but will wrestle Persephone for hours. He is very fond of the great god Heater and will lie as close to it as he can. He is expert at finding the Warm Spot. He doesn't talk much and when he does he sounds like a squeaky gate.

Persephone is such a little character. Her other name is Little My (from the Moomintroll books). She has the soul of a conceptual artist and has several Grand Passions (GPs). One of her GPs is cotton buds (Q-tips), but only those that have been used for cleaning ears (eeeuuuu). She will disembowl a rubbish bin to get at a cotton bud and then chew it until it's just a pathetic mess of plastic and cotton. We have had to design a special cotton-bud disposal unit to keep her away from them because I'm scared that eating cotton will damage her insides. Another GP is mousies. She looooves her mousies and will play with them for hours - playing fetch, licking them, carrying them around and showing them the sights of the house, teaching them to swim in the toilet bowl and teaching them to use the litter tray (eeeuuu). In fact, several mousies have found their way to the garbage as a result of litter-training. She is fascinated with the toilet and insists on watching it flush. She also likes to catch the drips in the shower. She loves me and will seek me out for a cuddle. She sometimes mistakes Dave for me and will jump up on him, but almost never settles on him - instead she will jump off him and wander around talking until she finds me. She talks a lot - commenting on where she's going, what she's seen, the state of her litter box, etc. She has a good vocab of squeaks, mrrrps, meows and chirrps. She is not overly keen on going outside.

Copyright © Tish Silberbauer
June 26, 2003