Elmer has been my good friend for 11 years and though we've had our squabbles, she and I are pals. Not so much with the kids. The secret to a good relationship with a cat is to be able to read it properly and they had trouble with this. It can't really talk to you so the way it will let you know you are over stepping bounds is to swat you. But, if you watch carefully, the cat will tell you it's had enough with it's body language. Maybe the ears go back, it's eyes might look evil, and it may twitch its tail. Most of all, if it ever starts growling with it's ears back, tail whipping from side to side, and proceeds to hiss, get out of claw range quickly because this is one really ticked off cat and blood is about to be shed. I was raised to respect the animal and if ever I got scratched or bit, the first question was: What did you do to the cat/dog? They need their space and they may be "owned" by us but they need to be left alone when they want to be. My younger son would tell me that he liked the kitten, but didn't like her "prickles" and he became intimidated by her. He didn't bother with her other than to toss her things to play with.
Elmer wouldn't bother with my son until both got older. She sometimes slept on his bed, which he didn't like because if he stretched out his legs, she would attack his feet under the covers. He tried all sorts of things to make her leave the room, but she wouldn't budge. He eventually found one thing that worked. He would get up, ask the cat if she wanted to be fed and no matter what time of the night it was, he would trudge downstairs and give her food. This was a mistake. Elmer soon figured out all she had to do was bat at the boy's feet a little and he would get up and feed her. She soon ruled the night. When I found out Elmer had enslaved my son, I gave him some hints on how to make her leave. My favorite was to just put a blanket over her. She hates that and will bolt from the room. Years later, if she is in his room, he just cranks up the electric guitar and amp, his door will open and she flies out.
A cat can provide hours of entertainment, especially when they are young. .Elmer did all the sorts of things kittens do. She played with imaginary things, hissed at the "other" cat in the mirror, climbed my 8' weeping fig tree like a leopard...until the day she was out on a limb and it hadn't been watered for awhile so the root ball was quite light. It was like watching something in slow motion. Ever so slowly, the tree tipped over with a wide eyed cat clinging helplessly to it and the rest of the family caterwauling about the situation. She would get on my shoulder to watch me brush my teeth and gently try to play with the toothbrush. The most entertaining thing is to get an empty, round clothes basket and throw a wadded up piece of paper in it. It is hours of fun for the cat and the family. It takes them a while to realize all they have to do is jump into the basket to get the paper and try to get it through the holes of the basket. They put their front leg in and start running to catch it. All this does is make the basket spin around and around with them running to catch the paper. When this doesn't work, they try all sorts of other methods. Many of which require somersaults, laying on their backs, and just looking so darn cute.
Even at a young age, Elmer was a killer. I read one time that cats are good hunters if their mother feeds them wild meat and shows them how to hunt. Her mother must have been an excellent hunter as well. She caught mice, voles, moles, and shrews. She didn't eat the moles and shrews, she acted like they didn't taste good. As she got bigger, she would come home with young rabbits and an occasional adult even though they were her size or bigger. More than once, she chased a mouse through the house and got it. And more than once she brought one of her little playmates into the house to play with. I then issued an ultimatum that no one was to let her in unless her mouth was checked first. None of Elmer's playmates, living or dead, were allowed in the house.
As long as she caught rodents, I was happy. I was intensely unhappy when she caught birds. Elmer knew of my displeasure because she would hide the fact she had a bird. She was always very proud of the rodents and always brought them home to show us before she ate them. If I saw her with a bird, I would take it from her and if it was still alive, let it go. Oh, the murder in that animal's eyes! One time I did this and the look I got was downright evil. About half an hour later I came out of the house to find a headless bird, still warm, on the back porch. My older son thought it was Elmer's way of flipping me the bird. Whether or not it was, I got the message. There, let's see you let that one go. Another time, she was behind the greenhouse and came around the corner with feathers stuck to her face. Bird? What bird? I wasn't eating bird. Nope, no bird here. One day, before she was fully grown, I saw her stalking a wild turkey. These are huge birds and that didn't seem to matter to Elmer. It was a bird and she was going to get it. I scared it off because I could just see Elmer leaping on it and the turkey flying away with her clinging to it's back. Though, if she had been successful in bringing it down, well, we just couldn't have let it go to waste. We would have had to eat it.
We got Beagle Baily when Elmer was 4 years old. Bailey was 6 weeks old and like all puppies that age, she was tiny. The pup came from the SPCA and we got her in the winter. Winter is a bad time for Elmer. She is intensely bored. When the snow is feet deep and you are a little cat, you don't go outdoors much. She would take a twelve hour nap, wake up, pace the house meowing and trying to play with anything she could bat, give up and start wandering and meowing again. I would rather deal with a bored kid than a bored cat. At least with a bored kid, you can threaten to find something for them to do like cleaning the bathroom. They scurry off to find something to do. Elmer? Not so much. She never paid any attention to my suggestions. So, it was a stroke of genius to get a puppy for her to torment when she was bored.
How does a cat torment a puppy? Elmer's favorite was to be at the end of a hallway with the pup at the other end. She would lean around the corner, stick out her tongue, make a foolish face, duck back and wait for the unsuspecting beagle to tear down the hallway and around the corner. Elmer was ready and would rake the pup with her claws. Bailey, far from being tormented, thought it great fun and would pounce on the cat. They would roll around a minute or so and the cat would run off with the beagle right behind. Sometimes, Elmer wouldn't bother setting the puppy up for the kill and would just scratch Bailey for the heck of it. I would take the puppy to the vet and he would comment that it was obvious we had a cat from all the scratches on Bailey's nose. I warned Elmer. Some day that puppy is going to be bigger than you. When it happened, Elmer was lucky that Bailey didn't hold grudges and they get along very well. Except occasionally when Bailey has to show Elmer who is boss. You know, that dog /cat thing. She never hurts Elmer, but roughs her up enough to let her know she's boss of the house. What does Elmer do? After coming out from under the couch, she walks up to Bailey and rubs against her as if to say: yup, you're the boss, I'm just the cat. Then they curl up on the couch together.
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