Playing Favorites With My Cats
Posted on June 15, 2018 Posted by Athena Scalzi 15 Comments
As many of you already know, we have three cats. Sugar, Spice, and Zeus. I know a lot of people have a hard time picking their favorite of their pets, because how could you possibly choose between all of your loving, adorable pets? Well, it’s easy for me, because Zeus and Spice are total jerks. Sugar is BY FAR my favorite cat. Zeus has been an asshole cat since day one, but I had hope for Spice in the beginning, then she turned out to be just like him. Sugar is the only good one. So today I’m going to show you a couple of my favorite pictures I’ve taken of her over the past two years.
She is just the cutest and the nicest of the all the cats. Not that I don’t love the other two, I just think Sugar is the sweetest!
We had a cat, got her at 9 weeks or so, that was not a cat. You couldn’t pet her, she didn’t purr, she wouldn’t play with any of the toys, catnip made her angry–may she rest in peace but, we chalked her up as the exception. Which probably would have been a good name.
They all have their personalities. One of our four has finally relaxed enough that she likes to be petted. That only took six years. One has the nickname of “complaint cat” because no matter what is happening (good or bad) her mewing sounds like she’s complaining, another is as sweet as can be, it is way too insistent on snuggling and sitting on laps. Sometime she tries to sleep on top of me.
I guess the names worked out for their personalities, then?
I love your phrase that begins, “I had hopes for Spice, but…” Isn’t that just the way?
I’ve got two rescue cats – one I was fostering, and after three months I actually managed to come up and pet her while she was curled up in the cat tower. And she just sat there – not flinching, not suppling herself to my touch, just…”what are you _doing_, human?” She still hasn’t figured out what petting is for. She loves to cuddle, now (12+ years later), but a hand on her is something to lick, not something to be petted by. She was raised as an indoor feral.
The other thinks wrestling, with me or her, is fun. He’s a sweetie, though dumb as a stump – but he does understand petting. He was clearly raised by people who knew cats (he was found wandering, at about 4 years old).
In what way are Zeus and Spice jerks? It’s an intriguing description for a cat :) .
I’m probably not the first to suggest this, but Greek mythology may be part of the problem. Since Athena was born from a crack in Zeus’ head, Zeus the cat may think you’re his daughter and should obey him. After all, cats are said to think of us humans as just big cats. Just remind Zeus that you’re older than him.
Three cats: Phantom, Boojum, and Chaos.
Phantom is maybe 16 years old, a rescue from a nightmare cattery. It took maybe six months of simply ignoring her (feed, water, clean the box) for her to investigate my hand dangling down by my chair. Once she discovered petting, it was all over. She’s still a grumpy old-lady cat and hates Boojum, quite likely due to bad experiences with toms. Highly contextual; she’ll cuddle but only in selected locations.
Boojum (the avatar) is 13, another rescue (sad story, indoor feral) and it’s taken us almost ten years to be allowed to pet him, some. When he’s not being a total jerk he can be quite charming but you’re still taking a chance of triggering a defensive swipe and at around 20 pounds (very little fat) and centimeter-plus long claws those can be messy. Scary smart.
Chaos is about ten and a permakitten. She was an accident at the cattery that was fostering Phantom and zeroed in on me while sitting at a table, where she viciously attacked my left hand, biting, clawing, disemboweling, purring … purring? No skin was harmed in all of the play. To this day, very sweet and affectionate, the only lapkitty of the bunch, loves to have her (very thick) coat raked. Finds a place near $HERSELF and me and just buzzes. Then goes off and starts a ruckus with Boojum.
Hard not to prefer Chaos, but I’ll miss all of them when they’re gone. Despite the stats, I won’t be surprised for Phantom to outlive the others.
Well, with a name like that, OF COURSE she is the sweetest!
We also have three cats, two youngsters about ten months old and an old gentleman cat who is about thirteen years old. It has been fascinating watching the personalities emerge and evolve as the kittens grow up. The youngsters, who are siblings, look alike but behave very, very differently. One is perfectly happy to be petted and to rub up against legs, but is not interested in being a lap cat AT ALL. The other one is in my lap the minute I sit down, and would be entirely happy for me to spend the rest of my life seated so he has a nice cozy soft spot to cuddle. The old fellow is a bit of a curmudgeon with the kittens, but is very, very, VERY affectionate with his humans, to the extent of waking us up in the middle of the night for more pets.
I love your kitty photos, Ms. Scalzi; you have a good eye for composition, and an absolutely adorable subject. Thanks for starting my Saturday with a grin!
Five cats currently; two indoors, three outdoors. All of them are strays, but since Junior (indoor) was brought inside at about 8 weeks, he’s not really stray, although his mom was feral. The outside Three Stooges just showed up one day as kittens, and since we started feeding them, stuck around; they are fairly socialized. Zorro we thought was a kitten, but it turned out she was just runty from being malnourished, and was actually 7 or 8. All have their own distinct personalities, and collectively can drive us up a wall.
One cat simplifies selecting a favorite. All time favorite? No idea. Loved them all. My brain read the title as Playing with my favorite cat.
Spice is the same color and is similarly marked as my formerly feral girl whom I trapped as a kitten. She was just on the edge of being tameable at all, and is strictly a one person cat, and I’m that person. I always smile when I see pictures of Spice, so she will always have a special place in my heart (not that she will ever know it).
Thank you Athena for your cat honesty.Cats run the roost because they can. It would be nice if some of them made more of an effort to charm, but not going to happen. My favorite cat is looking at me and purring. The ringleader should be by in about 5 minutes to demand canned food. I guess I’d better go get it now…
As we affectionately call ours: “Furry little sociopaths.”
That last picture is stunning. She looks very sweet sleeping, but then so do they all… I prefer the rascally ones myself.