Sneaky (cat!)

[peterm1]

Sneaky has never been mean to me, but I have seen him go from being very loving to me to instantly grabbing and murdering some small animal just for fun, then back to being sweet after it is dead. He's racked up quite the kill count.

I would not exactly say my cat is mean to me. When she goes into "attack mode" with me she always holds back a little - I do not think she is ever trying to hurt me deliberately but sometimes underestimates what her teeth can do.

If I had to characterize it, I would say that she is behaving exactly like one kitten playing with another kitten when the play turns momentarily rougher than either of them counted on. Its how kittens learn to be cats. That is, learn to be predators.

This seems to be partly what my cat is up to. When I first met her she was still a baby - too young to be taken from the litter. She was shy and nervous and in fact frightened of every thing, while her brothers and sisters were boisterous and confident. She was, I suppose, the runt of the litter.

Which is why I picked her. It took years of handling for her to lose this characteristic (though its still there a bit) - lots of love, lots of handling and some rough house play initiated by me to teach her that she was never going to be harmed by me and that she could respond similarly in her play with me. It was my way of building her confidence. So she is permitted to rough-house me in reply. And that's OK. Also its something I think being the runt of the litter she never really had the chance to learn properly as a baby. But I view it as a natural part of being a cat and she deserves to have that perfectly natural cat behavior permitted her. Cats gotta be cats........and as long as 95% of the time she is her loving affectionate and talkative self (and boy can she talk) I am happy to suffer the occasional over enthusiastic bite because I know she really loves me as much as I love her.

Another Damn Cat Photo by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

 

[fraley]

Great story, Chris! Good luck with Sneaky. He found a good home. Cats cannot be legally owned, they are free agents and choose their homes.

We just adopted a stray and our vet recommended a flea comb. Very fine toothed, wet it with sudsy water, comb the fleas off and dunk them in the soapy water. We have had cats forever and only discovered this recently thanks to Dr. Merzaeian. Live and learn 🙂

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Great story, Chris! Good luck with Sneaky. He found a good home. Cats cannot be legally owned, they are free agents and choose their homes.

We just adopted a stray and our vet recommended a flea comb. Very fine toothed, wet it with sudsy water, comb the fleas off and dunk them in the soapy water. We have had cats forever and only discovered this recently thanks to Dr. Merzaeian. Live and learn 🙂

Sneaky's fleas have been gone for months now. He's gotten really healthy since I got rid of the fleas and treated him for tapeworms (which he got from the fleas).

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Every time Sneaky goes outside, he returns covered in leaves. He likes to prowl in the bushes, where he hides to stalk birds and other prey!

It takes me 10 minutes to pull all of the leaves and sticks out of his fur each time!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Sneaky looking sad, trying to guilt me into giving him MORE kitty treats. He had just eaten a bowl of food, and some treats about 20 minutes earlier.

Right after I took these photos of the 'sad, starving, neglected kitty' he looked down and saw a single cat treat that had fallen to the floor. He instantly jumped down and ate it!

 

[CMur12]

Such a cat!


Thanks for another Sneaky fix, Chris. I always open this thread when I see there is a new post on it.


- Murray

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Came home this afternoon to find Sneaky sitting next to his latest kill, another shrew.


Last week he chased an opossum out of the yard. A few nights ago, he was in the house when he saw the opossum again through the window. he went to the door and wanted out, but i didn't let him. I waited an hour or so to be sure the opossum was gone before letting the cat back out. The first thing he did after being let out was dart across the yard to go after a small bird! It got away.

 

[peterm1]

Came home this afternoon to find Sneaky sitting next to his latest kill, another shrew.


Last week he chased an opossum out of the yard. A few nights ago, he was in the house when he saw the opossum again through the window. he went to the door and wanted out, but i didn't let him. I waited an hour or so to be sure the opossum was gone before letting the cat back out. The first thing he did after being let out was dart across the yard to go after a small bird! It got away.

Given how much he was apparently mistreated by his past owners I am guessing he learned to hunt to survive. And this is what you are seeing now.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Given how much he was apparently mistreated by his past owners I am guessing he learned to hunt to survive. And this is what you are seeing now.

Maybe. Some cats are just murderous. My grandpa had a cat who killed more than 9000 small animals in her 20 year life, and she was VERY well fed. She only ate the chipmunks, nothing else. The rest was for fun!


Sneaky only eats bugs, but kills mice, moles, shrews, and birds for fun.

 

[alfredian]

So, Sneaky is a Maine Coon Cat, right? or Norwegian Forest Cat? I hosted a big orange Mainer for several years (36" long, nose to tailbone). A real jerk, best friend ever, could do everything intelligent except open cans & pick locks. Feline equivalent of a Mastiff.--alfredian

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

We had steaks again last night, and Sneaky got a big bowl of it, too. After he ate, he came into the living room and stretched out across my piles of books and went to sleep!

 

[peterm1]

We had steaks again last night, and Sneaky got a big bowl of it, too. After he ate, he came into the living room and stretched out across my piles of books and went to sleep!

Chris, I notice you are reading William Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill. I did not realize he had written one on Churchill but really enjoy his writing on history. I first came across him when I read his memoirs of WW2 in the Pacific "Goodbye Darkness" in which he wrote about his PTSD after the terrible time he had there. This was in around 1990 and I was in my late 20's and I had just visited some WW2 battlefields in New Guinea, Solomon Islands etc so it was very relevant to me to read that not all that long before Manchester had revisited some of the same battlefields himself, as part of his attempts to come to terms with his continuing distress. Then I read his book on Douglas MacArthur "American Caesar" and another, "Death of a President" on Kennedy's assassination. I think he was a very good historian and writer (he is gone now sadly).

Do you think his book on Churchill is good? If so I must look out for it. Churchill is something of a, I suppose you would say, hero for me and I have read many books on him. I am realistic about him though and I am fascinated by the fact that a man so flawed and human and who made so many mistakes could also be so great a person. We live in a time where such leaders of courage and insight are needed but instead we get moral and intellectual pygmies.

Correction: I just found that Manchester wrote a trilogy of books on Churchill.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Chris, I notice you are reading William Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill. I did not realize he had written one on Churchill but really enjoy his writing on history. I first came across him when I read his memoirs of WW2 in the Pacific "Goodbye Darkness" in which he wrote about his PTSD after the terrible time he had there. This was in around 1990 and I was in my late 20's and I had just visited some WW2 battlefields in New Guinea, Solomon Islands etc so it was very relevant to me to read that not all that long before Manchester had revisited some of the same battlefields himself, as part of his attempts to come to terms with his continuing distress. Then I read his book on Douglas MacArthur "American Caesar" and another, "Death of a President" on Kennedy's assassination. I think he was a very good historian and writer (he is gone now sadly).

Do you think his book on Churchill is good? If so I must look out for it. Churchill is something of a, I suppose you would say, hero for me and I have read many books on him. I am realistic about him though and I am fascinated by the fact that a man so flawed and human and who made so many mistakes could also be so great a person. We live in a time where such leaders of courage and insight are needed but instead we get moral and intellectual pygmies.

Correction: I just found that Manchester wrote a trilogy of books on Churchill.

I enjoyed it. I need to find the other two volumes and buy them. This one is the second, it covers the years between the end of World War I and Churchill's becoming prime minister in the early days of World War II.


I read a lot. I own more than 2000 books, and I go through a couple a week. I learned to read when I was three years old, and have been reading constantly ever since. History (especially of Russia, the Balkans, and the Middle East), Russian literature, and books about art and photography make up the bulk of my library.

 

[peterm1]

I enjoyed it. I need to find the other two volumes and buy them. This one is the second, it covers the years between the end of World War I and Churchill's becoming prime minister in the early days of World War II.


I read a lot. I own more than 2000 books, and I go through a couple a week. I learned to read when I was three years old, and have been reading constantly ever since. History (especially of Russia, the Balkans, and the Middle East), Russian literature, and books about art and photography make up the bulk of my library.

I am somewhat the same with regard to reading - mainly history, social history and biography are probably my favorites. I have recently discovered an Oxfam charity bookshop in my city which is very good and which has a large selection of books which sell for no more than 3-4 bucks typically, even hard cover ones as all their stock is donated. It has good turnover so it is always a great sources of new books to read. For example I picked up an interesting book there this week on life in London during Shakespeare's time. (He is another person I read a lot about - much more than do I read his actual plays and poems.

I regularly run out of room to store books so tend to give ones I am not too attached to, back to charity. This slows the growth rate but the number still grows. 🙂 And it makes me feel virtuous. 🙂

If interested in Churchill there are many very good ones on him and the Churchills so even if you cannot find the other Manchester books it is fortunately easy to find good reading about him and them. I have recently started reading about his ancestor John Churchill the first Duke of Marlborough for example.

I have also been reading avidly about the Tudors - another dynasty that is well covered by historians.

For me it is a tonic but it has made me realise that I missed my calling. I am an avid researcher, have a very logical, evidence driven mind and according to friends write well so perhaps I should have found a calling as a historian and author. Too late now! But at least I can read.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Have you ever seen such a comfortable cat?

Yesterday morning, Sneaky came inside and ate breakfast. Then he snooped around the house for a while and then disappeared. I had to go to the bathroom and found him sleeping in the doorway!

I went in and used the toilet and came back out and he never even woke up despite me making noise and walking past him. Stayed like that for about an hour before waking up and asking to go back outside.

 

[CMur12]

Yup, I'd say he's found a home, Chris. 😛


- Murray

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

So, Sneaky is a Maine Coon Cat, right? or Norwegian Forest Cat? I hosted a big orange Mainer for several years (36" long, nose to tailbone). A real jerk, best friend ever, could do everything intelligent except open cans & pick locks. Feline equivalent of a Mastiff.--alfredian

Alfredian,


I don't know what Sneaky is. I stole him from my neighbor who was too stoned to care for Sneaky. He looks like he is at least partially a Maine Coon/Forest Cat type, but I don't really know.


My family got an orange Maine Coon when I was in college, and he lived at my parents house until he died at 16 in 2010. He was like yours. Smart, and a real SOB. When he was about 10 years old, they got a gigantic Great Pyrenees dog. She weighed almost 140lb! Simba was PISSED, and he started bullying this huge dog. The dog was scared to death of Simba.


Here's a story to illustrate just how evil Simba could be. All of his life, he hated beef, and refused to eat it. He would not eat steak that we offered him, and he would not eat any cat food containing beef. In 2007, my family decided to have steaks instead of turkey for Thanksgiving. The entire time we were eating, the cat sat on the floor next to me and LOUDLY demanded food. I didn't give him any because I knew he would reject it. When everyone was done, I gathered the leftover meat from everyone's plates to give to the dog, who was out in the back yard to keep her from drooling on us while we ate.


I was going to put the meat in the dog's food bowl, then bring her in to eat it. Simba followed me to the dog's bowl, loudly bitching and demanding the food. I thought that maybe he had changed his mind about beef, so I put a bunch of it in his bowl. He sniffed it over, made 'burying' motions over it with his front paw, and walked away (grumbling the entire time). When he symbolically buried food, he was saying it was **** that he wouldn't eat. **** gets buried in the litter box.


So, I took the meat back from his bowl and put it and the rest of the meat I had, into the dog's bowl. I went to the kitchen to get rid of the plate and as I was heading for the door to get the dog, I saw Simba at the dog's bowl gulping down that meat as fast as he could swallow it!


I got the dog, which took a couple of minutes, and by the time she was in the house, the bowl was EMPTY. She looked at the empty bowl, then looked at the cat, who was licking his lips and looking at the dog with a smug look "I ate your food, what are you gonna do about it?" The dog then looked up at me with the SADDEST look. She looked like she was going to start crying.


The cat hated beef and did not want it, but he damned sure didn't want that dog to have it because he knew that she would like it! The dog did nothing; she was too scared of Simba to fight back.

He weighed 23lb! Someone told me once that in this photo the cat looked like a snake that had swallowed a bowling ball!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

In October, 2019, Sneaky began spending a lot more time indoors since it is getting colder outside. I often stay up late at night, editing photos on my computer. While I'm working, Sneaky sleeps under my desk, laying on an old pair of my shoes that I keep there.

 

[nikon_sam]

What is it with cat and shoes...Max would get next to my shoes and just plop down on them, whether I was in them or not...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

What is it with cat and shoes...Max would get next to my shoes and just plop down on them, whether I was in them or not...

I don't know, but a lot of cats do love to lay on shoes. Sneaky does this to my son's shoes, too.