The Official HTF Cat Thread (6 Viewers)

[Kevin Hewell]

So, this past fall I discovered Plutarch, the male orange tabby that lives with me, was hanging out on my front lawn in the evenings with a wild rabbit. Not sure how the friendship began but each night he wanted to go out and sit on the front lawn. He would go out and lie down on the lawn and eventually his pal the bunny would show up and lie next to him. They seemed to be contemplating the stars or just enjoying a gentle fall breeze. I am not sure how or if they communicated...you know, if they spoke some common language or everything was just visual cues. They obviously enjoyed each other's company as they repeated the ritual nightly. I would assume one species could tell itself apart from another but maybe they looked at one another and thought "You're one odd looking cat!" and "You are one odd looking rabbit!"

Recently, we had our first snowfall and the rabbit has not been around. Plutarch goes out to have a look around and sniffs things looking for signs but returns to the house seeming to say "Nope, the bunny has not been here."

Wow! What a great story.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Wow! What a great story.

It's sort of odd but this is not the first wild animal he seems to be on good terms with. During the summer I was sitting in the yard in the morning reading and having coffee. Plutarch will come out and stretch himself out to his full length in the grass next to me when I do this. During one occasion I was reading and heard what sounded like a soft sigh to my left. A sound that I did not really recall being one the cat makes. I put down what I was reading and looked down to find not only Plutarch stretched out in the grass but right next to him, between him and my chair so literally right next to me, was a groundhog also stretched out in the grass as if he was mimicking the cat!

Without thinking really I mumbled out loud "You've got to be kidding me." at which point Plutarch lifted his head and casually looked at the groundhog. The groundhog sighed again and rolled over on to his back as if to say "Go ahead now, rub my belly." and Plutarch just closed his eyes and put his head back down in the grass.

I stared for a second in complete amazement at this display of lazy camaraderie and went back to reading and shortly after that I think the groundhog started to snore.

 

[Malcolm R]

shortly after that I think the groundhog started to snore.

I love stories about inter-species friendship. Makes one wonder why so many of the same species cannot get along.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I love stories about inter-species friendship. Makes one wonder why so many of the same species cannot get along.

Well, if you are talking about human beings that would be because we are the one species on this planet capable of both displaying and enjoying cruelty. None of the other species act out of cruelty nor do they have the capacity to enjoy it. They just act out of instinct.

We are quite special in this way and so things like cruelty, revenge, murder, war...these are unique to us.

We also have the capacity not to act on our enjoyment of cruelty but so many people do...but I think this is in part because they instinctively know that other people can act on this toward them. So, kind of a get them before they get you kind of thing.

My cat was not cared for and spent a lot of time outdoors before he moved in with me. So, I get the sense that he probably interacted with a lot of animals in that period of time and learned that they primarily posed no threat to him or on cold nights maybe they huddled together in the same places. I do think his time outdoors basically is a big part of how he is.

They say cats don't meow at each other when they are living outside like that and he is mostly silent. He does now come and find me and give a soft meow when he knows it is time for dinner if I have not fed him. But just one and not very loud. The female cat that used to share the house here with him talked up a storm. If people were gathered in a room talking she would sit in the group and chat away as if she were giving her thoughts on everything that was said. And if people got louder she got louder. It was a pain in the ass when I would take a business call at home and she would hear me on the phone and rush over and start meowing away as if she had things to add. Callers would say to me "What's that noise in the backrground? Is that a baby crying?"

It did however allow me to do things like film interviews with her where I would pose questions and she would respond. Plus when I would pick up my guitar I could ask her if she would like to sing a song and she would. So, that was always fun to do when guests were over.

The problem is when you encourage these things you then can't get them to stop so she would have a response to everything I said no matter who I said it to.

The truth is I was never a cat person. I was a dog guy all my life. Then I bought this house and cats just started showing up and moving in.

 

[Mike Frezon]

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Dum goggie pest.

 

[Todd Erwin]

Extremely rare cuddle moment with Buddy!

 

[JQuintana]

Christmas time is here, so you know what that means...

 

[bmasters9]

Christmas time is here, so you know what that means...

View attachment 52633

My cats are on the verge of celebrating their first Christmas, and after that, they're also on the verge of being adults sometime next year!

 

[Sam Posten]

Shadow boxing
https://twitter.com/cctv_idiots/status/1069676173268008960

 

[questrider]

'Tis the season for posting pictures of kitties under (or front) of the tree!

I can't tell if Simon is huge or my tree is tiny. Probably a combination of the two!

 

[Malcolm R]

You need to add some dangly decorations to that tree so Simon can properly get into the spirit.

 

[ChristopherG]

 

[ChristopherG]

 

[questrider]

You need to add some dangly decorations to that tree so Simon can properly get into the spirit.

I knew better than to even attempt to hang ornaments. I did wrap a string of garland around the tree though from top to bottom and within ten minutes Simon had nearly half of it pulled off the tree as he thought it was his to drag off to his lair (wherever that is). So back in the box the garland went. He still thinks the twinkling lights are his too but not as much as the garland since he just paws at or nibbles on them. Thus, I'm sticking with a simple tree with lights only!

Notable is that this is the first tree I've put up since 2005 so both of the cats' eyes were the size of saucers when I was putting it up like they were thinking, "Wow, is that for us?!" I got Maya in 2010 and Simon in 2016 so neither of them had seen such a sight! They both now thoroughly enjoy lounging underneath it.

 

[PMF]

I once knew a cat that had a sense of time and days.
This cat was a stray that adopted two families.
Every Wednesday that cat left the safety of one home;
and went over to the other.
On Sundays the cat would then leave the safety of that home;
and returned back over to the former.
This continued on for years;
until another animal caught up to him.

 

[Sam Posten]

That got dark quickly!

 

[PMF]

That got dark quickly!

Ooopps. Guess I should've left that final part out.

 

[TJPC]

This is the first time we’ve had a cat like this. Finn pays absolutely no attention to the Christmas tree even with dangly ornaments!

Perhaps it is because he is so busy knocking off every toilet paper roll in the house and chewing it, when we forget to close the doors to the bathrooms.

 

[Mike Frezon]

That got dark quickly!

It sure did.

Especially since I started reading that post like it was a limerick:

"I once knew a cat that had a sense of time and days."



Next thing you know...