Caturday: Taming the Tiger
Tiger asleep on Anemone's wheelchair, one of his favorite spots
Tiger really is a tiger, for all practical intents and purposes. An orange tabby, he looks like one. A feral even after 14 years, he behaves as one.
Raised as an only child (after his sister died at the too-young age of one), he was the central focus in the life of my disabled adult daughter, Anemone, living independently and alone after the too-early death of her fiancé. That made her Tiger's central focus. They bonded deeply.
Tiger followed Anemone everywhere. He would ride around on the arm of her wheelchair, which he, naught boy, would sometimes use as a scratching pad -- the pads had to be replaced from time to time. At times, he even slept there. He would also nestle down on her lap for a long sleep.
When she snapped her fingers, he came running. And when anyone came to the door (which was very seldom), he stood guard, tail up and quivering, claws at the ready. And he would spring -- from his cat tree or the wheelchair or wherever, like a force of nature, keeping everything at bay.
That part of Tiger's nature was not endearing, but as long as the two bumped along in life together, each protecting the other, things were more or less fine -- until my daughter needed to move back home for health reasons.
Tiger had to accept seven other cats, all of them, fortunately, pretty well integrated. For the most part, he decided to hang out in Anemone's room. After all, it was his role in life to protect her -- and woe unto anyone who wanted to come through her door.
Slowly, by using the spray can as needed (sometimes more often than one would like), he understood that he had to allow others access to Anemone. (Note: using air spray, which sounds like a snake, aimed above the cat works a lot better than the traditional approach of spraying a cat with water to stop unwanted behavior, in my experience.)
That was just in Anemone's room. Next, he needed to explore the house. That is where Bear, a very large but calm Russian Blue-Chartreux all-gray cat with orange-ringed green eyes, surprised us by becoming territorial. Bear and Tiger would have spraying competitions on the furniture. So, we had to start protecting the furniture. (I thought we had gotten past that point when we no longer had to protect it from cats scratching it.) Out, as well, came the air spray, and with each cat spray, the offending cat (usually both of them) got to experience time out in their respective rooms, Tiger with Anemone but without affection, relegated to the cat tree, and Bear to my room, relegated to the big pillow that he preferred to a cat bed.
Tiger and Bear were of one size, though Bear was much younger, a new-to-the-world two-year-old. Over time, with patience and consistency in slapping on undesired consequence, the spraying ceased, and friendship emerged. We encouraged that by putting Bear into Anemone's room at night, where he loved to sleep on the cat tree while Tiger slept with Anemone on her bed. It was peaceful. We fed them side by side in the morning, and they shared a large ceramic water fountain. Both are good water drinkers.
Now Bear and Tiger pal together everywhere: in Anemone's room, on the catip, which Tiger finally got to experience, and in every other corner of the house. Often, Bear will go to Tiger's door and ask to be let in to play with his pal. Just as often, Tiger will come to the door that leads to the catio and ask to be let out to play with his pal and, well, the other cats he can tolerate.
It seems that Tiger has now, grudgingly, but after long months in this cat-dominated household, has come to grips with his changed lot in life. But he has not relinquished his role as Anemone's guardian. Just let a visiting nurse try to enter Anemone's room at a time where we have not been forewarned so that we could entice him onto the catio, and that visitor will experience the full force of nature in the defense posture of a guard cat.
Yeah, a year later, we are still taming Tiger. (How long did Shakespeare say it takes?)
Read more posts about Tiger.
Learn more about cats. See our many Caturday posts.
Be entertained. See all our posts about cats.
Be inspired. See posts by and about Sula, parish cat, and her books.
Have a chuckle. Read posts by and about Jeremy Feig's award-winning book (book of the year finalist, Kops-Fetherling Lagacy Award for Humor), How My Cat Made Me a Better Man.
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