The Deviant Cats

After having lived with Scooter and Boo Boo for so long as well as a myriad of other cats over the years, I regard them as all pretty normal felines. Quite entertaining, but normal. After having lived only a few months with Petie and Sebastian I have come to realize that they are really quite unique. These two are like partners in crime - - where one is doing something he shouldn’t, the other one is not far away.

Early in the mornings they engage in a game I call “Throw your Brother Against the Wall”, because that is how it sounds. There are the unmistakable sounds of one cat chasing the other up and down the stairs, then the sound of two cats wrestling, then a few minutes later the sound of one cat hitting the wall. This is repeated as necessary or until both of them are exhausted.

Lola and I have come to discover that Petie has a fondness for fuzzy blankets that goes above and beyond the platonic level. He treats blankets as a ‘girlfriend’ cat and does the ‘hop hop’ on it, as Lola would say. Yes, this cat is neutered. We inquired about this odd behavior with our vet during an immunization booster appointment, and were told Petie was definitely neutered and the behavior is not attributed to any physical malady. The vet speculated it was a dominance issue. At first we tried to deter him from doing this, but it seemed the more we drew attention to it the more he would insist on not leaving his chosen object of affection. After realizing other methods of behavior modification, including hiding the blankets, proved unsuccessful I have just chosen to ignore it.

The latest ‘fetish’ with one of them is to drag a plush stuffed animal down the stairs from Lola’s bedroom to the landing. It is then left there. It never gets dragged all the way downstairs. Over this past week we have found a large stuffed black panther (on Monday) and a floppy-eared dog (yesterday). I am puzzled about this new activity. Totally stumped.

Maybe I can teach ‘the boys’ how to move furniture…