Mary, queen of cats

Yesterday, as we came home, we noticed a new face in the complex. A friendly black and white kitten came running towards us, seeking attention. It followed us to our door and our immediate concern was how Mary was going to react. She has exhibited some really strange behaviour towards other animals in the past. The very first time we saw her interact with another cat was quite frightening: she came running back inside our place, soiling herself and cowering in a corner.

The next place we moved to, she was again terrorised by a stray cat who would come inside, beat her up and eat her food. I once separated the two and as I lifted Mary away from the brawl, this cat hung onto her head. I stopped counting the number of times we had to take her to the vet to be stitched up. At the same complex lived a kitten about the age of the one we encountered yesterday – in fact, it looks VERY similar, and Mary bullied this poor little thing. She would call it, it would come running and she would clobber it quite viciously and run after it when it tried to flee.

We moved and she adapted pretty well as there were hardly any cats in her territory. Then our neighbour got a cat and we held our breath. Tommy and Mary clicked right from the start and the two became inseparable. Tommy would come in to our flat, and Mary would go in to his flat. They were truly bosom buddies.

A while later we saw her do to another younger cat what she did with the first kitten she encountered – she became the aggressor. So there really is no telling how she would react. Chances were it would be a negative reaction as she only ever took to one cat: Tommy (and that was without ANY hitches whatsoever!).

But Mary keeps on surprising us. She could not be bothered less by this youngster. Despite the youngster’s BEST efforts to get her to play, Mary feigned complete disinterest. The kitten would sneak up to her, take a quick sniff and then bat Mary with his paw, and then run like hell. Mary would look at the kitten like she is bored and continue to groom herself. The kitten would come running back, and when Mary looks up, kitten will roll in to a quick submission position on its back before darting off again.

It was just too cute for words, and we breathed a sigh of relief!

It could just be that she was acting this way because we were watching, or it could be that we taught her well: don’t play with strangers!

Taking a quick sniff before darting off, trying to get Mary’s attention!

We have one smart cookie on our hands. Not only does Mary know exactly how to twist us around her little finger, but she knows how to outsmart us too.

Mary has a set feeding routine. She gets “wet” food once in the morning at 6 AM, and one in the evening when we get home at about 6 PM. We used to feed her a variety of sachets, but found that madam only licks the sauce and leaves the rest of the food to stand. After eating her “wet” food, we used to give her biscuits (she REALLY likes her “dry” food). But because it was only the sauce she was interested in and wasted the rest of the food (there are cats out there who have NO food!), we started a new routine: she would only get biscuits if she FINISHED her “wet” food. No ifs, buts or maybes. That bowl must be CLEAN, but getting there took some time. Mary is a stubborn cat and likes things her way, and she will fight against everything you do. She eventually got the idea and begrudgingly ate all her food. Interestingly enough, she now knows the meaning of “eat your food” and responds to it.

Food bowl is not empty, yet she wants biscuits

About two months ago we had to change her diet by switching to a hypoallergenic range prescribed by the vet. Every 8 weeks she would develop a skin condition, and this means “torturing” poor kitty by taking her to the vet for cortisone and/or depo provera shots to get her skin to calm down. Trips to the vet and injections are obviously unpleasant experiences but we spared no expense to try and find out why her skin acted up every second month. After many tests, her first vet could not find anything wrong, and concluded that the condition was “psychosomatic”.

Psychosomatic my a**. That would imply that she is stressed out. Not a chance, my friend. I KNOW what a stressed out cat looks and behaves like, and this ain’t it. We took her for a second opinion and again nothing was found wrong with her.

However, allergies could not be ruled out. The vet suggested that we try and find the source of the irritation and that meant establishing whether the irritation was caused by for example, environmental factors. First thing we needed to do was to see whether her food was a cause. No more of her regular food, but a new prescribed diet. If the condition returned, we would know it was not caused by her diet, and so on and so on.

SO FAR *touch.wood* the skin condition has not returned. This unfortunately means Mary is stuck with “wet” food from the vet: food with no sauce and food she really does not like all that much.

Feeding time became a drama. One or two bites, and she lost interest in her food. She will try every single trick in the book to get us to give in. It starts of with sitting with her back to her food bowl, staring at us with no expression on her face. It would then progress in to being overly friendly, allowing us to do anything to her (like tweaking her ears or any other action that may in ordinary circumstances get her irritated). If that does not work, she goes for the whole cute angle. Should that fail, she goes in to full sulk mode. It becomes a battle of wills. The whole process can take anywhere from 15 minutes to about two to three hours before she eventually gives in and finishes her food.

She tried to make us believe she made an effort and that her bowl was now empty

One night a couple of weeks ago, she added a new thing to her “give me biscuits” routine: the pathetic look. It got me hook, line and sinker. I decided to make finishing her wet food easier, by taking the little bit that is left, and mixing it with maybe 3 or 4 Greenies or Meow Luv treats. I covered the treats well to prevent her from picking out the treats and leaving the rest behind. It worked like a charm!

Except. I seemed to have started something. It only took ONE time for her to figure out an easy way to coerce treats from us.

Outwitted, outlasted and outplayed.

Finally – the red bowl is empty, she had some biscuits (the silver bowl next to the red bowl) and finishing off her meal with some water, one happy cat