Expectations

I was thinking, the other day, about why my cats, especially Quint, but Hedge as well, are different than other cats I have encountered both in real life and on the internet. I came to the conclusion that each cat’s unique characteristics are a product of his companions’ expectations of him (or her). In other words, our cats live up or down to what we expect of them. If I expect Quint to be engaged, active, capable, curious and friendly, then that is what he will become. Part of the reason for that is when he does something that I like, I will reward him for it, sometimes simply with praise or a quick pet, sometimes with a treat if I am being more pro-active about it. Another aspect of Quint’s living up to our expectations is that being in an environment where one is expected to excel will cause one to rise up to a level of ability and awareness where one does just that. If you are around purposeful, enthusiastic people all day, you, yourself, if you weren’t to begin with, will tend to become purposeful and enthusiastic as well. The opposite, of course, is true as well. If you are expected to be a useless lay-about and are surrounded by people who are uselessly lying about, you will live down to that expectation. If you as a cat are surrounded by people who consider you “just a dumb animal,” you will act as if you were a dumb animal. The longer you are in this environment the more of a dumb animal you will become. If you are treated cruelly, you will tend to respond in kind. The same goes for living with someone who is always angry, the emotional atmosphere will permeate everything within it. Sometimes the only thing you can do in such a case is to escape and go look for a new home. On the other paw, if you are treated as a contributing member of the family and expected to do your share, your options and your horizons become nearly unlimited. Really, the only thing holding you back is an annoying lack of opposable thumbs. The devices and conveniences in the human world were just not designed for manipulation by a paw full of claws. Still, ways can be found to do your part and those cats who are lucky enough to live with people who have high expectations for them can and do find unique ways to contribute. As I said, it really is largely a matter of expectation. If you want your cat to do great things, he’s more likely to do so if that is what you expect of him (or her). And, as I mentioned, you can also use this technique with other humans. And, now that I think about it, cats could use this technique on their human companions as well. Encourage your humans to play with you, to pet you and take care of your teeth. Expect it of them, and then be sure to reward them with a purr and a little warble when they perform the desired behavior. Use caution when practicing this technique. Remember the admonition: Be careful of what you wish for, you may get it. Properly applied, this is a nation changing, a world-changing technique. What would happen if each and every one of us expected everyone around us to be respectful and civil to each other, to listen to each other, to help each other, to consider how our actions might affect others? What if we all considered it our responsibility to pull each other up? What if we are all expected to be kind and considerate and a credit to our profession? What would happen? For one thing, we’d all have amazingly capable cats. From there, who knows how far we could go.

Quality Time With Quint

The Purring Order

If chickens can have a pecking order, then cats can certainly have a purring order. Mine sure do. Quint is Top Cat. Hedge gets whatever Quint doesn't want or need. Hedge goes out of his way to find places to nap and relax that Quint never uses. Never uses until Hedge occupies the space which then instantly becomes desirable space and Quint must have it. If there was a pile of rusty nails and broken glass in the house, which there isn't by the way, and Hedge was laying on it, Quint would kick him off the pile and take possession of it like it was an invaluable dragon's horde. If I am brushing Hedge in the morning, which I often do, Quint comes in the room, jumps up on the bed and watches to make sure Hedge doesn't get too much attention. No wonder Hedge is a shy and reclusive, what with Quint constantly upstaging him. Hedge takes it all with his good, sweet disposition undiminished.

Lately, though, there has been a subtle twist to the game. Quint has this refillable, catnip mouse which he carries around the house and then drops in whatever room his people happen to be occupying, or in our path so we can't miss seeing it as we move about. Hedge, sometimes, when the mouse has been dropped on a small rug, will fold the rug in on itself and bury the little mouse. Last evening Quint dropped the mouse in the hallway and Hedge immediately proceeded to bury it. This annoyed Quint so much that he paraded around the house meowing at the top of his lungs.

I warned Quint a long time ago that if he kept up his bullying it would come back to him. It seems that it finally has.

The Strategy of Cats

Since Hedge came to live with us very nearly two years ago, he has gradually become more and more social, at least as far as humans are concerned. He couldn’t help but have some sort of interaction with Quint, who thinks of himself as Alpha Cat. Hedge’s strategy in dealing with Quint has been to be non-confrontatory, submissive you might think. I thought so too at first, and perhaps he was submissive when he first arrived. As time has gone by and he has grown up into the handsome fellow he is today, I’ve seen Hedge emerge from the shadow of Quint as his mentor and dominator to become a clever, crafty and personable (catable?) member of the family.

It has been fascinating, and quite rewarding, to watch Hedge slowly figure out how to overcome his fearsome and humble origins and establish for himself a definite role in the group. He is still as cautious as ever when it comes to new people and situations, but with each encounter, he observes, he retreats, he thinks, he decides and he establishes protocols to help him deal with the situation as he sees it. Instead of submission as standard operating procedure, he will now stand up for himself so as to get what he needs and wants. He’s very considered in his choices of importances. For example, at breakfast and supper times, we feed a small quantity of canned cat food in two different bowls, the same food and quantity in each. Quint considers it his right to sample the contents of both bowls and lick up whatever juice or gravy there might be in each. He will then eat a bit of the food from each bowl and leave the rest. Hedge allows this, unless the proffered food is especially to his liking, in which instance he will pick a bowl, stand his ground and consume his share, gravy and all. Most of the time, Hedge is indifferent to canned cat food, so he lets Quint have his way, but Hedge is more than capable to moving in and taking his share. Hedge has taken his time, studied the situation and evolved a policy for getting his share of his favorite foods.

Recently, Quint has taken to kicking Hedge out of whatever bed or space that he has chosen for his afternoon nap. If Hedge wanted to nap in the bed under the window in the northwest corner of the living room, Quint would go over and kick him out of the bed and take that space for his nap. Hedge would then have to find some other less-preferable spot. Today, I noticed that Hedge has formulated a workable strategy for dealing with this most annoying problem. Instead of starting his afternoon nap in the spot that he would prefer, he lays down somewhere else. Quint, of course, kicks him out of that space and Hedge then happily moves into his preferred space and has his nap. Quint has no idea that he has just been outmaneuvered and is content to believe he has won. If it didn’t know better, I’d suspect that Hedge has been reading my copy of The Art of War.

Hedge has also observed that Quint is able to get our attention by vocalizing and then leading us to where he wants us to go. If Quint wants to go for a ride in his cat stroller, he will meow at us and then herd us over to the stroller. Hedge seeing this, decides that he, too, can “talk” us into something he wants us to do, that being petting him. Thus, he now squeaks at us whenever he wants to be petted and only stops when he is satisfied with the result.

It’s quite interesting to watch these two distinct cat personalities interact, adapt and cooperate in their efforts to get their needs met by the two distinct human personalities that they live with. It’s a daily dance with the four of us coming together in constantly changing patterns, leaping and whirling and pausing and touching. There is dialog and silence; there is laughter and contemplation; there is conflict and cooperation. What binds it all together is the love, respect and communication which we share. That’s what makes us a family.

Quint Goes for a Ride -- Stroller Cam Video

Strolling With Quint

Back in August of 2009, I wrote and thought about the possibility of taking Quint out for a walk. Because of the inherent dangers of city living, I keep my cats indoors at all times, so their interaction with the outside world is limited to looking out the window and sniffing our shoes when we come inside from one of our daily walks around the nearby Silver Lake Reservoir. Both of the cats seem to be content with that arrangement, though Quint will sometimes make a tentative attempt to go outside when Carol and I come in the front door. He doesn’t try to dash out into the yard, he just stands on the threshold, looks out, sniffs the air and thinks about taking a step outside. He backs up as we enter the house and doesn’t seem too disappointed that he has to stay inside, but I get the feeling that he’d like another day out with the neighbor’s two cats.

There are many, many dogs in Silver Lake and we see quite a few of them on our walks around the reservoir. There is a dog park at the south end where they can run free with their doggy friends; and there is a nice walking path, safely isolated form the traffic on the street, where their owners can take them for walks. I’ve only seen one cat in all the times we walk along the reservoir and I only saw that one in passing. The cat was in one of those expensive pet strollers. In the brief glimpse I had inside that stroller, the cat was laying down and looking out of the nylon screen at the front of an enclosed nylon tent-like structure which kept the cat from running away. I was a bit like one of those soft-sided pet carriers, but built into a stroller frame. It even had a canopy to keep the animal shaded. I decided right then that if those people could take their cat for a walk, there was no reason why I couldn’t try to do the same thing with Quint.

The first step on the road to pet mobility was figuring out what sort of vehicle to use. The pet stroller I had seen was interesting, but it had several inherent problems that eliminated it as an option for what I had in mind. All the pet strollers that I saw offered for sale were expensive (well over $200), had small wheels suitable only for smooth surfaces, and/or were made entirely of nylon cloth or some other fabric. In my view, they cost too much, couldn’t go where I wanted to go, and were too flimsy to be safe for the cat. If I’m going to push my cat around the neighborhood, I want him to be safe and comfortable. The cloth construction is too vulnerable to cat claws from the inside and dog teeth from the outside. What I needed was something that would keep the cat from running off in panic and also keep him safe from attacks from other animals. The only way to get what I needed was to design and build it myself.

I liked the stroller idea because the cat would be in front of me where I could keep an eye on him, but I didn’t have any idea how I would go about building a stroller that would fit within the parameters I had set for this vehicle: safe, comfortable, light, able to easily navigate bumpy ground and uneven sidewalks, good visibility for the cat, easy to push or pull, a design that is pleasing to the eye, and affordable. With those limits in mind I began looking for components that I could adapt to the purpose. I looked at some three-wheeled strollers but the ones I saw were quite expensive and larger than I wanted the vehicle to be. I finally decided that I would have to use a small wagon with pneumatic tires as the base and then attach a cage to the wagon bed or place a carrier in the wagon.

I explained to Carol what I was attempting to create and she expressed some enthusiasm for the project. I showed her pictures of the wagon I was thinking of using and she thought we ought to go look at one and see if it would work. After a bit of internet research, we set out on a wagon-shopping trip. The one I thought would work was supposed to be available at Target, but when we looked at one of the stores nearby, it was not in stock. We decided to try another Target store. There was no wagon in that one, either. I suggested Sears since there was one just up the street and so we went there next. Sears didn’t have the wagon I was looking for, either, but they did have a large selection of strollers in their baby department. One of them was just what I was looking for and was on sale for a price I was willing to pay. We bought the thing. It came in a big box and it was obvious that some assembly would be required. That was fine with me as that would allow me to remove, or not assemble, those parts that I wouldn’t need for my cat stroller.



When we got home, I opened the box and looked closely at what I had. The baby carrying part of the stroller was attached to the frame with screws. That made it very easy to remove. What was left was a nice sturdy little frame that appeared as if it would serve the purpose perfectly. Now I had to figure out how to create some sort of cage for the cat inside the frame of the stroller. There was a rectangular frame near the bottom of the stroller that had originally been intended to hang a basket which could hold all those things a baby night need while riding in the stroller. That frame looked to me to be just the right size to drop a cat carrier into with a minimum of alteration to the stroller frame. I wanted a carrier that had the maximum amount of visibility for the cat and that would also be large enough for him to move around inside of while we strolled. I borrowed a carrier from my neighbor that looked like it might work. That one was too big to fit into the frame, but otherwise had all the right features: visibility and safety. What I needed was a smaller version of that carrier. Off we went to the pet store to see what we could find.

We found a carrier just the right size and with a hinged wire mesh lid and a wire mesh front door which would provide the desired visibility, plus there were holes in the plastic sides that would let the cat see out and let air in. The outside dimensions of the carrier should allow it to fit into the frame, but we’d have to get it home to be sure. We bought it and, sure enough, it fit right into the space where it needed to go. Now I had to devise a way to support the carrier in that rectangular frame. I remembered that I still had some nylon strapping material leftover from another project that might work to make a cradle to hold the carrier inside the frame. I reused some of the screws I had removed when I took out the baby carrying material and created a strong and secure basket for the carrier to rest in. With an elastic strap over the top of the carrier and hooked onto the sides of the frame, I now had Version 1 of the cat stroller. Now all we had to do was get the cat accustomed to riding around in it.

I took the door off the front of the carrier and then raised the lid and tied it off so it wouldn’t close unexpectedly and scare Quint. We pushed the stroller into the living room and just let it sit there for a while. Both the cats found it interesting and examined it thoroughly. Carol put a small cat bed in the bottom of the carrier and I sprayed some catnip essence onto the little bed. We left it there in the living room for a couple of days. When Carol would play with Quint, she would play near and around the stroller at times and then move away. The plan was to gradually get the cats used to the presence of the strange machine and then introduce them to the idea that it might be fun to ride around in it. Carol worked very hard at making the cat stroller an object of interest to Quint. She showed him all the features of the carrier and explained to him what we were trying to do with him. He seemed to be quite interested in the plan. Eventually Carol got him to jump up into the carrier and then she would push him slowly around the house while he sat in the stroller with his head and shoulders above the carrier. As I watched them strolling through the house, I saw that closing the top of the carrier was going to greatly limit Quint’s ability to see what was going on around him. I needed to add a “Vista Dome” to the top of the carrier so that he could sit up and look around and, yet, still be protected and safe. I spent a couple of days thinking about just how to do that.

What I needed was a wire cage that would fit on top of the cat carrier to give Quint a little head room but still offer that safety and security we needed. I again went to the internet and began looking at small animal cages that were the right dimensions to create the space we needed. A hamster cage proved to be just the thing. It added enough height and could be hinged to the top of the carrier in such a way as to allow Quint to jump in, have the top put down, go for a ride, and then have the top lifted up to let him jump out when it was safe. We went back to the pet store where we found just the little cage we needed, and, lucky for us, it was on sale. When we returned home, I took the carrier down to my basement workshop. First I removed the existing hinged, wire mesh top from the carrier, then I devised a simple way to hinge the hamster cage to the top of the carrier. I took the assembly back up to the living room where the stroller frame was parked and set the carrier in place inside the frame. I had put the hinges on the wrong side of the cage, but it was an easy matter to go back to the shop and change the configuration so that the hamster cage would hinge open in the direction that would let Quint jump in and out of the carrier. Once that was done, it was Carol’s turn again.

Carol showed Quint the new addition to his stroller and explained to him how we hoped it would work for him. He seemed to understand. She got him to jump into the stroller with the top of the carrier open so he could jump out if he needed to and pushed him around the house. She did this twice-a-day for several days. She would have Quint hop up into the stroller where he happily rode while she pushed him around the living room, through the kitchen, into my office and back. One morning, she and Quint decided they were ready for their first trip out of the house. Quint hopped up into the carrier and Carol pushed him over to the front door. She slowly closed the little cage down over the carrier where Quint was sitting and fastened it in place with a bungee cord that was just the right length to hold the whole assembly in place. She maneuvered the stroller out the front door and down the single step to the sidewalk. She talked to Quint at each point where she thought he might panic. Together they made their way down the front walk to the street, turned right at the sidewalk along the street, down that sidewalk to our driveway, about halfway down the drive way and then all the way back along the same route to the front door. By that time, I had finished my morning shower, gotten dressed and nearly missed the entire performance. I saw them as they were coming back into the house. I made Carol take the stroller back outside so I could at least get a picture of Quint outside for the first time in his new vehicle. After that, we brought him back inside, opened the top of the carrier and let him jump out. Quint immediately went from room to room in the house making sure everything was just where he had left it. Once he had seen for himself that nothing in the house had changed, he walked over to the stroller and thoroughly scent-marked all the wheels by rubbing his chin glands all over each one. It was as if he was saying, “This is MY stroller!”

The next morning, Carol repeated the routine. This time I was there to help hold the door open and offer whatever encouragement I could. I also had my little video camera with me to document that second outdoor excursion. This time Carol and Quint went all the way to the bottom of the driveway before they turned around and rolled back to the house. Quint seemed to enjoy the experience; he kept his ears up and looked all around him as he traveled. When he got back in the house, he again checked to make sure that his indoor space was unchanged. Once reassured of that fact, he again scent-marked the stroller. That afternoon he was a bit more active around the house. In retrospect I think the two outdoor excursions in a row had made him a bit anxious and insecure, but at the time we just figured it was excitement with this new adventure.



On the third morning, Carol had a class she had to attend and so she assigned me the task of keeping up the routine. I wasn’t sure that this was a good idea, but I was willing to give it my best effort since it seemed like we were making progress acclimating Quint to this new activity. I’d never tried to get him to hop up into stroller before, so I didn’t really know how to go about it. I called him over to the stroller and tried to get him to jump in. Since I wasn’t Carol, who he was used to working with on this behavior, he was confused about what I was asking him to do. He would look at the carrier and even put his feet up on it, but he wouldn’t jump inside. I decided that I would gently help him and so I picked him up and kind of slid him into the stroller. He got the idea at that point and he tucked in his tail and sat down inside the carrier. I rolled him around a bit and then headed to the front door. When we got there, I put down the top and fastened it in place. I opened the front door, all-the-while explaining to Quint what we were doing, and maneuvered the stroller out to the sidewalk. So far, it seemed to going very well. One of the employees of the coffee shop down the street was getting out of her car as Quint and I approached the sidewalk. She noticed Quint in his vehicle. I told her that we were engaged in a grand experiment to see if it was possible to take one’s cat for a walk. She wished us luck and went on down the street to her job. Quint and I continued on the usual route down to the end of the driveway and then back up. I talked to Quint from time to time to reassure him that he was safe and to encourage him to relax and enjoy the experience. I got the feeling that he was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing but he didn’t seem to be too uncomfortable. As we got back up to the top of the driveway I pushed the stroller up past our house and into the neighbor’s driveway where we turned around to go back down. A man in jogging clothes walked by and said he thought what we were doing was pretty awesome. By this time, Quint was starting to look and act a little frantic. He appeared to be feeling trapped inside the carrier, which of course he was. I rolled him back into the house and let him jump out.

Three days in a row was just too much too soon for the little guy. For the next couple of days, he wouldn’t go anywhere near the stroller. We had moved forward just a little too quickly. We decided that we needed to step back the program to just riding around inside the house with the lid open for a while. Next we’ll try riding inside the house with the lid down. Then, once Quint is comfortable with that, we can try a very, very short trip outside again. We want him to feel that the carrier with its “vista dome” is there to keep him safe, not trap him, so we’ll go more slowly to build up his confidence. There’s plenty of time. I’m confident that the three of us will eventually succeed.

Hedge, of course, stands on the sidelines and watches everything we are doing with Quint. He is very curious. I suspect that he’ll be unable to resist the temptation once he sees how much fun Quint is having. We might have to build another stroller at some point so that Hedge can go along, too. Ha! A two cat-stroller family!! Wouldn’t that be a sight to see!

Quint: Under the Weather

Over the weekend Quint came down with what appeared to be a head cold. His nose was running and it was obvious that he didn’t feel well. He wouldn’t play with Carol on Sunday morning, instead all he wanted to do was lie in the sun and sleep. Of course, he’s a cat, so lying in the sun and sleeping is pretty much what he likes to do anyway, but when he won’t play with Carol, we can surmise that there is a problem. The sneezing and the headshaking and licking his upper lip were also unusual activities for him, and then he wasn’t eating much either. All bad signs.

I looked through my cat books for any advice I could find on what to do about a cat with all these symptoms. The book said that if the condition persists, take him to the vet. Well, by Monday he seemed to have improved slightly in that he was eating again and slightly more active. We watched him carefully, and since he was making progress toward better health we decided not to take him to the vet that day.

On Tuesday, he was quite a bit better, and though he wasn’t jumping around and playing chase, he was much more alert and active, and he was eating well. Great, he’s improving we thought, perhaps he’ll get through this without a trip to the vet. On Wednesday, though, he had a bit of a relapse and was back to acting like he had on Monday, listless and kind of drippy about the nose. Okay, I thought, he’s not showing further signs of improvement, if he doesn’t’ perk up by the time I get back from returning the videos to the video store, then it’s off the vet with us.

He was the same when I got back, so I called and got an appointment for Wednesday afternoon. In the meantime, I tried to keep myself busy doing some writing, but I was rather distracted and worried about the little guy and so the writing was not going well. Plus, I felt as if I needed to go and check on him every few minutes to make sure he was okay. He wasn’t getting any worse, but then, he wasn’t getting any better either. The time passed slowly as I waited and worried.

When it was time to leave, Quint got into the carrier without too much resistance which is another indication of how miserable he was. He meowed at me on the way to the veterinary clinic, but he was quiet while we sat and waited for someone to become available to see us. Quint watched the other animals, mostly dogs, come and go to their appointments. I read old copies of Cat Fancy. It was a busy day at the clinic with an emergency or two, but after a half-hour wait, we finally were called to an examination room with the assurance that one of the veterinarians would be in to see us soon. One of the vet techs came in, weighed him and took his temperature. He was up to 11 pounds and his temperature was about a degree high, so I was now guessing that he did indeed have the feline equivalent of a head-cold or a mild case of the flu.

When the veterinarian came in to see us, I described the symptoms as I had observed them while the doctor was looking at Quint’s nose and inside his mouth, listening to his heart and lungs and generally poking and prodding him to try and determine what the problem was. She decided that it was the feline equivalent of a head cold, like a mild case of the flu and called it an Upper Respiratory Infection, which I guess it is, technically. She also indicated that he was a bit dehydrated and could use some fluid. I thought that was all probably about right. It certainly agreed with everything I had observed and seemed to explain all the symptoms. I started to feel a little better. Quint was likely feeling a little worse since he was sitting on a cold examination table being poked and prodded by a stranger. He didn’t know that he would soon be injected with subcutaneous fluid, stuffed back into his carrier and sent home. He just knew that his toes were cold from standing on the metal surface of the table. The vet took Quint into the back of the clinic for treatment.

I went to the reception area to pay my bill, collect the prescribed medications, and wait for Quint to be brought out. While I was there, I looked over the display of collars. They have the best collars at this clinic, better than at the pet store, better than as Target, better than any I have seen anywhere. I bought Quint and Hedge new collars. They were still wearing their Christmas collars, so it was time to upgrade to something more appropriate. Quint got a blue one decorated with little red fishes; Hedge got a white one decorated with little black paw prints. Meanwhile, Quint was brought out in his carrier and we got back in the car and drove home.

My job for the next week or so, is to administer some nasty-tasting liquid antibiotic medicine to Quint twice a day, in addition, of course, to the regular tooth-brushing and fur brushing routine. Quint dislikes the nasty-tasting medicine, loves the brushing and is improving. He appears to be feeling a bit better today. Carol and I feel a lot better today. We were both horrified at the prospect of losing Quint to some mysterious and untreatable disease. It’s much better to know what is wrong and to be able to do something to help him. We love the little guy and hope to have him around to play with and enjoy for many, many years.