Anthropology

Last edited Sat Sep 21, 2024, 08:59 PM - Edit history (3)

I have loved watching my pets over the years resolving problems, figuring out how to get what they want, and showing affection or hostility to people.

I once had a border collie whose breed is known for their intelligence. Too many amazing incidents to list here, all of them par for the course for border collies, I've learned.

I used to have a solid black, long haired cat named Merlin. He acted like my chaperone when I was dating. When guys took me home in the evening, they always made a fuss over Merlin, mostly trying to impress me it seemed. But Merlin was immune to pretentious overtures. If he didn't like or trust a guy, he slapped or bit the guy's hand when being petted. If he liked them, he rubbed against their legs. He was usually
right so I trusted his judgement.

My current cat, Ember, has gone beyond anything I've observed in previous cats. Since apartment rules allow only one 4 footed pet, I got Ember a stuffed cat (Fluffy) for company, slightly larger than her when she was just 3 months old. She dragged Fluffy everywhere.

But when Ember was 6 months old, her serious hunting instincts kicked in and she started treating Fluffy as prey. She practiced stalking, pouncing, and neck snapping on Fluffy. What amazed me was how calculated she was about it. She would place Fluffy behind a foot stool, walk away, and then turn back, belly crawling, to sneak around the foot stool and suddenly pounce on Fluffy's neck. The snapping jerk she gave to the neck was cringeworthy. She was so calculating that sometimes after putting Fluffy in place, she would go back to readjust the placement before proceeding with the hunt routine.

At 4 months old, she figured out that it was the masking tape I put over my lower cupboard doors that prevented her from opening them. She clawed a piece of tape loose, tore it off with her mouth, and opened the cupboard door.

She likes playing with pipe cleaners. She would place one in front of my bedroom door, then go to the other side to grope with her paw under the door to pull the pipe cleaner to her side of the door. If it didn't line up well enough to pull it through, she went back to adjust the placement and then proceeded to pull it under the door.

By accident, Ember learned that, if the pipe cleaner was bent and crumpled enough, it would catch on the door and the door would move with the pipe cleaner as she pulled it through. She then started doing that deliberately and peeking out at me through the crack in the almost closed door.

But the most surprising thing I saw her do was to show empathy to me after she accidentally drew blood while playing. She liked rushing out from her tunnel to ambush my legs when I walked by. One day I was wearing capris and loafers with no socks. Her claw caught an ankle vein which bled quite a lot, down into my shoe. She looked stunned and concerned when she saw the blood. I hobbled to the bathroom to clean up and put on a Band Aid. Ember watched from the doorway, eyes wide, then sniffed the Band Aid when I finished.

She hid in her tunnel. I watched a movie. When I walked by the tunnel an hour later to get a snack, Ember rushed out, then stopped suddenly. Instead of a full on ambush, she gently tapped my leg, with her claws pulled in.

That was 5 years ago. She has never ambushed me again. The blood that one day made her realize that playing too roughly could hurt me.