Margaret’s been awfully suspicious these few days, ever since we ‘introduced’ her to Molly. She still greets us when we go home but her eyes dart to the open door and grille, to see if we also have Molly behind us.
You know, cats have never been good with other cats.
Unlike dogs, they prefer to be alone and left to their own devices. Cats seek you out if they want a chin rub or an ear rub, or a nice belly tickle. They flop carelessly on any furniture if they want. They aren’t obedient like dogs (my late dog wasn’t much of an obedient specie either but at least she did SIT when I used my most ‘garang’ voice). Cats like Margaret really come and go as they please.
And yet, we love this cat. My friend’s 3 year old daughter calls her “Garfield”. Margaret has the same colouring as Garfield, and is as fat too. She’s 4.8 kg the last time Dr Gill weighed her when we took her to GS Gill’s for a follow-up jab.
Margaret was quite vexed this afternoon. After her lunch of Friskies biscuits, she decided to check out the neighbourhood and see if Molly had infringed upon her territory. Our kitchen connects to the outside corridor so off hops Margaret onto our washing machine (which is really Margaret’s look out post for furry enemies), and out she went.
Suddenly, we hear pained yowls and hisses. I pulled up the window blinds to find Margaret having a bad standoff with Molly, the younger grey and white cat. Molly was making all that noise! Margaret had grown still and stiff, her stump of a tail getting frizzier, in an effort to make herself more intimidating. Molly looked far more menacing and tried to scratch poor Marge.
Cats are all noise and very little combat. They may go all puffed up but they really want to avoid being hurt. So there they were, in that strange frozen way until our neighbour upstairs threw water!
In a split second, both water-despising cats ran in opposite directions.
Margaret ran home to us of course but she was still in fighting mode. Molly had run off, well, for now anyway. Cats never go far away.
Well, that settles it. We had wanted to adopt Molly seeing that she’s female and quite pretty for a cat. She’s been tailing us many days now and probably wondering what’s a fat and brown cat like Margaret doing in our apartment.
But Margaret made the decision for us. She knows she’s the queen of the apartment and the 5 meter radius around it.
No Molly, she seems to be telling us. I am the only one deserving of chin rubs!
Ah, cats!
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