by De Ette Stewart

Created on: November 12, 2008

One of my all-time favorite cats was my Black Persian, Merlin. He had quite a few little quirks. I'm not sure I would go as far as to call them "Behavior Problems", but they were odd. None of my other cats ever showed the same behaviors.

The weirdest was his screen fixation. He loved screens, the kind on the outsides of windows to keep the bugs out? He would leap up and grab onto the screen with his claws, then hang there until some poor, unsuspecting person looked outside and saw these big, round, yellow eyes glaring in at them! He nearly knocked two years off me the first time he did it! I thought a mugger was lurking outside in the dark. His black coat prevented me from seeing the cat body attached to the eyes! They looked like disembodied eyeballs hanging just outside the window, suspended in mid air.

He liked to be treated like everybody else in the family, this included being tucked into bed with the kids. My mother-in-law was old school, believing that cats would "suck the breath" out of small children. She was horrified that the kids routinely took Merlie to bed with them. He liked me to pull the covers up to his furry chin, while he draped his front paws over the top edge of the blanket and stretched his back paws all the way down the bed, just like a person! He would take the same length nap as the kids and did a great job of keeping them company. Nobody ever had their breath sucked out either!

He loved to sit on my kids' laps during Sesame Street. I think Big Bird was his favorite character. They have fond memories of their big, black kitty keeping them warm on cold winter mornings.

He hated my then husband, later my ex. The only time he ever "missed" the litter box was when he peed in the ex's running shoes! I guess he figured they smelled like a litter box. Or maybe he picked up on some of the family tensions. He was always my cat, rarely letting my ex touch him.

He was totally unfazed by strange dogs. I nearly panicked once when a large shepherd mix ran up on him while he was out in the yard. He was declawed on the front (in an effort to save a few screens), but forever escaping to the great outdoors. He had learned to open doors and pop screens out of windows to accomplish his houdini act. When I saw the dog bearing down on him, I figured he was a goner, but Merl wasn't even fazed, he puffed up his 6 inch long fur and HISSED! The dog tucked his tail and ran the other direction. I couldn't keep the cat indoors so it was just as well he could take care

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