Having finally moved into my own apartment, freedom to do whatever I want tastes sweet. Most importantly, I can finally not have to lock the cat in her cage. A cage, with 3 levels of platforms and nicknamed a "kitten condo", is still that: a cage.
However, despite not caging little Maxie when I'm out, I still keep her locked up in my bedroom whenever I leave the house or during bed time..to prevent her from doing something she (okay I) will regret when left unsupervised, like the night when she dragged her kitty toy into bed in a rowdy jumping game that made me dream I was on the Titanic after striking the iceberg...but I digress! This post isn't about that.
Another side effect of having my own apartment is that I was able to invite my best friend Joshua over for weekend nights of gaming. Of course, everyone loved the idea, except Maxie!
The first time I invited Josh over I had to go pick him up. So as usual, I locked the cat in the room, left the house and came back with Josh (okay that last part wasn't "as usual"). As was her norm, Maxie was meowing up a storm in the bedroom once she heard the front door open.
"Let me out, let me out! I know you're home! You've been gone FOREVER!!!!" she cried (and for you dog lovers who think that's a dog-like behaviour, you haven't met my cat).
I opened the door, she came barreling out of the bedroom like the room was on fire while continuing to complain about my abandonment (it is possible she has daddy issues)...for all of 5 steps and froze.
"I can't believe you left me here, AGAIN! You do this to do me EVERY DAY! I ha....WHO THE HELL IS THAT????"
Uncharacteristically meek, she scurried between my ankles and curled around one. Eyes wide, pupils dilated, and nose twitching furiously as if to gauge if this new human was catfood or monster. I laughed and picked her up (with her usual yowling protests) and offered her face-first to Josh for (her) inspection. Josh dutifully offered a hand, which was duly sniffed and I could see that Josh was discarded as "yet another furless giant non-cat like thing in her domain whose main purpose of living was to leave her alone until she wants to get fed". Yes, it's quite a mouthful, but she summed it up with a succinct "meow".
Having made her inspection, she of course wanted out of my hug as soon as possible. I let her liberate herself and we proceeded to game. That night, she spent the whole night curled up in bed next to me instead of picking random spots around the room to bestow her presence on.
Fast forward 4 visits later, she now deigns to walk out of the bedroom when I bring Josh over and give his ankles a cheek rub or two. This last visit, Josh decided to pet her...and this happened (my friend iwashi might find this picture a tad familiar):
You can just picture her as Emperor Cuzco in "The Emperor's New Groove" going, "Ah ah ah, no touchie!"
Josh, being wiser than me, gave up trying to pet her while I chased her up and down the living room trying to envelop her in what was meant to be loving hugs but was reacted to as if they were "squeezing arms of doom" by my cat.
As was her custom, the cat ignored both of us while we were gaming, only meowing occasionally to inform me it was meal time (it wasn't) and that she needs tuna (she got that 3 hours ago). Finally, it was bed time. Expecting to have some quality "kitty in bed" time with her again since Josh was visiting, I was surprised to find my bed devoid of cat. I looked around the room for her and spotted her curled up in front of the door, as if daring him to intrude into her domain. Looks like by attempting to pet her, poor Josh crossed a line....
And looks like I am suddenly in possession of a guard cat too...hmm, this has interesting possibilities ;-)
PS: Sadly I couldn't get a picture of her guarding the door as the moment the phone came up with camera mode on, she decided she was camera shy and ran off....you'll have to be content with a textual post this time, readers!
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