2908 Feral Cat

Monday, March 21, 2010

"The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous."
-- Shana Alexander --
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Jasper still has some habits from when he was a feral adolescent.

He's "tame", loves me, comes around asking for petting every fifteen or twenty minutes. Doesn't like being picked up, but he'll allow it for about 10 seconds before wriggling to get down. Doesn't sit on my lap, but he'll stand up next to my leg and pat my lap to ask for petting. Allows me to touch him everywhere, even his tummy.

Food and sleep is a different story. He seems conflicted.

He'll tell me when his food dish is empty, and wind around my legs while I'm filling the dish, and take the first taste while I'm near, but after that initial taste, if he sees me watching him eat, he jumps and runs away. He won't go near his food if I am anywhere he can see me.

Same with sleeping. If he's asleep on the sofa, or in the back bedroom, and I appear in the doorway, he'll jump up and run away. When I go to bed, he'll come up on the bed and curl up on, between, or next to my legs, but he never actually sleeps there.

When he was wild, he had to guard against being trapped by food or surprised in his sleep, and I guess it's still there. I wish we could get past it.

Now we've got another problem. Starting about two weeks ago, when I'm on the computer he goes under and behind the desk (a huge wooden "manager's desk", purchased from The Company at a warehouse sale), and I can hear thumping and scratching, and the electric cords (printer, scanner, old flat screen monitor, desk lamp, etc.) moving around and rubbing against the wall. He's into something back there, but I can't find out what because as soon as I move the chair back so I can look under the desk, he shoots to the side and out the door.

I'm worried that he might fry himself.

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I hadn't thought about it before, but Jasper and The Man have a lot in common. The triggers may be different, but the reaction is the same.
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