A cat.

[icarus]

So, oh friends who are knowledgeable about cat politics, what would you advise my father? I've already sent my advice.

A Cat

This began quite innocently.

I've been playing the cat game for years, something I made up one evening's walk back when we lived in Alice, the house. Do you remember Alice? [Editor's note: Yes, my dad named his house "Alice." If you saw the house you'd understand.]

Toronto's beaches community is the kind of place that attracts cat people, and so there are cats prowling all over the place. Some are stand-offish, some gregarious, and others are total sucks. Never mind why, but on one evening's walk I made a game of it, counting two points for a sighting, five points for a touch, and seven if I could cause the cat to come to me and suffer my hand upon it. The record is somewhere under one hundred points.

Last week a very plump tortise shell cat wandered into our back garden and onto the deck. I did my usual cat talk and he (or she, or it) came right to me. I rubbed its head, stroked its ample sides and we had a most satisfying commune. A definite seven. The problem is, the cat won't leave.

It's a well fed cat. There are no signs of abuse or neglect. Good fur. No sense that this is a cat in need of a home.

As I said, we had a very nice visit, and I assumed that the cat would go home when I locked up for the night. Not so. Next morning, cat was still there. Annie didn't help at all, she let the cat in the house. Cat looked the entire place over and gave it it's complete approval. Eventually Annie had to put the cat outside. Note there were no frenzies involved, No hissing or scratching. Just very sad and disappointed cat sounds.

We left for a five day journey down the Hudson River Valley on an art, poetry and food break – one last treat before I become a temporary invalid. [Editor's note: My dad is going in for foot surgery.]

That should have been ample time to discourage any cat, but not this one. Still there, insistent. And the cat has a point: "Hey, you let me in before, why not now? What did I do? What did I say? Is there a problem? Let's talk. I can make some changes, lose a little weight. Come on! Don't just slam the door in my face!"

And now I feel terrible.

This is someone's cat. Why does it prefer to be here? Is it an abandoned kitty? What's going on?

What would happen if we took it in?

Is there any higher complement from the animal kingdom than being chosen by a cat?

Is this hubris of the highest order?

Why won't the cat go away?

All thoughts on the subject will be most welcome.

By the way, the cats name in our household is, Speckles. Because of it's most interesting coat.

I'll note he's already named the kitty.

Comments

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Oh, and you don't have to look between her legs to sex this cats - only females can be tortoise shell or calico.

Interesting! How come?

And Icarus? I second the collar idea; if no one calls, the cat should keep him.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

the cat should keep him

Bwah! Yes, I think she should. *writes this quip down for dad, hehe*

[fer-de-lance.livejournal.com]

Only female cats can be torties/calicos because the gene for orange or black colouring is located on the X chromosome (the gene for white is located elsewhere). Therefore, to have black and orange colouring, a cat must have two X chromosomes!

There are some "male" calicos out there, who are either hormonally altered females (i.e. something went wrong in development and the fetus was exposed to androgens, resulting in the development of male-like sexual features despite being XX in genotype) or genetic "goofs" in their parents' sex cells that give them an extra X chromosome, giving them an XXY genotype.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, we had a male calico once. My dad learned male calicos were quite rare and thought, "Hey, this kitten could fetch some bucks." We put an ad in a cat fanciers magazine and didn't get one call.

To mock ourselves we named him "Rothchild." I wonder if he had an XXY or XX genotype. He was quite a tiny cat if that means anything at all.

Anyhow, Rothchild was cool.