A TALE OF 2 CATS
A Tale of 2 Cats
And a message to humans…
SammieKat was rescued from the North Shore Animal League when she was 6 weeks old. She’d been there for less than 24 hours after having been transferred from a shelter in Albany. That was most likely a traumatic period and perhaps frightening in the extreme, but it happened at such a tender young age, she likely doesn’t remember any of it.
She was taken to her forever home where she began a life filled with an abundance of love and affection, surrounded by toys, having an ever-full tummy, and sheltered from the outdoor elements. She has not known hardship since and has lived for 14 years with the certainty that the good things in life will always flow to her.
It’s true that when she was brought to that home, there was a crotchety 12-year-old cat living there who tried his best to snub her, but she was having none of that. Within a month or two, she’d won him over and they became inseparable for 4 years until age took her sweet companion away.
SammieKat went from princess to queen of the house.
She was fully confident in her position in life. She knew, as a 20% Persian, 11% ragdoll, and 9% Maine Coon cat, that she had the softest, fluffiest, and thickest fur of any other family’s feline, and her striking, muted tortie coloring made her irresistible. She even let her human use her as a pillow sometimes and she’d project her purrs straight into the human’s brain. She was intimately bonded to her human and assumed things would never change.
8 years later… a black tuxedo cat started coming to the door outside. And—her human started feeding her! She even put up a little shelter on the porch. Soon, the interloper was eating treats out of her human’s hand, and eventually let herself be petted. After a while, that other cat started to think it was her home too.
SammieKat expressed her opinion by hissing through the storm door, especially when this new cat would roll over and show her belly in submission.
The human called this newcomer Midnight.
Months went by like this. Freezing cold snowy days turned to blistering heat and Midnight did look like she was suffering. SammieKat hoped she’d just go away, but her human enlisted the help of a friend who brought a drop trap. They scarfed the little tuxedo up and took her away.
What a relief!
Until her human returned with the cat and a clean bill of health from the vet.
Midnight was set up in her human’s office upstairs so it became SammieKat’s job to make sure she stayed there. Even when her human used smelly things like Fel-A-Way and called in an animal behaviorist, an emotion code therapist, and finally, an animal communicator to get SammieKat to be more friendly, she was having none of it. She would never be friends with that intruder.
Her human thought maybe SammieKat was afraid of Midnight—as if that would happen. But the animal communicator told the human that SammieKat looked down on Midnight as if she were “just some alley cat.”
Well of course. Wasn’t that true?
Now she has to endure Bach’s Flower Essence rubbed on her ear 3 times a day, which does make her feel a little less stressed…
***
The human was mortified by the animal communicator’s evaluation.
“Where did you get such an idea?” she scolded SammieKat. “We do not judge others by where they came from or the color of their fur!”
It didn’t matter anyway.
Midnight spent her time either hiding under the desk or sitting on the couch in the office. She was grateful for the food she was given twice a day and it was cooler inside and never rained on her anymore. The human came in several times a day to sit on the floor and Midnight would head-butt her hand and then lie against her leg and purr. She’d come running for affection when the human came by but she could not let herself be picked up—that was way too scary. Most of her time was still spent alone, which was fine because she was terrified of anything new, and that included just about everything in the house.
It was indisputable that the other cat had seniority and just didn’t like her. Even when Midnight tried to be submissive, the other cat was not interested. She hissed and growled intermittently so eventually, Midnight gave up and did her best to ignore her, but she knew the human was thinking about rehoming her since the 2 cats could not get along. After all, the other cat was there first and obviously had a close relationship with the human. Midnight doubted she would ever get love like that from anyone again.
After being indoors for 4-5 months, little Midnight started to have a lot of pain urinating and spent most of her time next to her litter box. She didn’t want to disappoint the human by making a mess.
Then she started peeing blood, and it was SO painful.
It was so bad, she even let the human pick her up and put her into a carrier to take her back to the vet.
They took blood from her paw and put a needle in her bladder and took pictures of her whole body. And then they saw what had happened to her.
In addition to having bladder stones, the x-rays clearly showed 2 silver-colored pellets, one in her hind leg and one in her belly, and Midnight was ashamed. She must have been a very bad girl for someone to shoot her. And now she was sick too. Would anyone want her now?
The vet was kind to her but he called the human and asked angrily where Midnight had come from. Midnight was sure she’d be sent away again.
But instead, the vet put her to sleep for a while and when she woke up, her belly hurt where she’d been cut open. Yet, after a couple of days, she realized the pain when she peed was gone, and there was no more blood. And the wound on her belly was healing.
The human came to get her and brought her back to the house. She set up a gate while she was recovering so that the other cat could not bother her, and spoke to her soothingly. She told Midnight not to worry anymore, she was home for good.
Time went on and Midnight became more comfortable and managed to get access to a second room in the house. This did not please the other cat at all, but the human was fine with it and defended her right to be there. It almost seemed like the human knew that Midnight had been beaten and abandoned by those she’d loved and trusted, such a long time ago.
Even after more than 2 years, the other cat never seemed to accept her, and Midnight stopped trying to be friendly. At least that cat did not come too close and never touched her—only for the human’s sake, that much was clear.
***
The human often thought back to the animal communicator who said SammieKat thought of Midnight as “some alley cat.” At first, she’d thought that was ridiculous. What did SammieKat know about alleys? And besides, they lived in a gated community full of trees and bushes and lots of green lawns. There were squirrels and birds and chipmunks, and no concrete alleyways. There was almost no concrete anything. It was beautiful.
But then she read an article about cat interaction which said that cats will bond with each other much more easily if at least one is very young or if they are in the same “social circle.”
Cats have social circles…?
As time went by, the human started to see that SammieKat was a pampered darling, had never known suffering, and had wanted for nothing all her life (since being rescued as a tiny kitten).
She felt entitled to all the good things that being a housecat had to offer. She had never experienced the cold or extreme heat, never had to run for shelter, never spent days on end wet or hungry, never had to run from a raccoon or a fox—or even from the landscapers. She had even less idea what Midnight had been through than the human had. And no frame of reference in which to imagine it.
And even more importantly, the human realized that Midnight saw herself as an “alley cat.”
Midnight was always afraid, as if she foresaw the worst at every turn. She jumped when the human moved too fast, ran away from the sound of a toilet flushing, and worried that at any moment the human could turn on her and become abusive or throw her out, as had undoubtedly happened before. Midnight asked for nothing and expected nothing; she’d spent most of her life just trying to survive.
Yet from the time they’d met and Midnight asked for food with a sad, plaintive meow, the human had recognized that this cat was well-socialized to people. Scaredy cat or not, she was too friendly and too hungry for love to have never had a home. The human was sure that once upon a time, Midnight had been a beloved housecat.
The human came to an epiphany:
Each cat had a completely different self-image.
And that self-image dictated the life they could lead.
Different social circles…
Surely fate and circumstance had created these images as they either struggled to survive or reveled unconsciously in their good fortune, but unless they could expand their visions of life, this would be a huge obstacle to them ever becoming friends—or even friendly.
Unless SammieKat could step outside herself for a moment and understand that her state of abundance could have been otherwise, and be grateful for all that she had, she could not see Midnight as deserving the same.
And until Midnight could see herself as worthy of an easy life, that her past was something horrible she could leave behind, she might always have an “alley cat” mentality.
***
How true is this of people too? When we can’t picture ourselves in roles of plenty, it’s hard to amass wealth, and when we believe ourselves wretched, it’s hard to find love.
But when we do see ourselves as meriting riches, money and material things flow to us. And when we see ourselves as good human beings, we find love and friendship.
Unlike these cats, we humans have the capacity to change our self-image, regardless of where we start from, because we are more self-aware.
It’s remarkable that one’s sense of worth can be of such paramount importance, not just in humans, but perhaps in every walk of life. Especially among creatures whose psychology has been closely compared to humans.
Like cats.
How do you see yourself? Would you like to change that picture?