The Cat that Thought it was a Great Dane
I've owned several cats with interesting personalities, but only one with an identity crisis. I swear, this tiny little white kitten grew up believing she was a dog. And not just any dog. She was convinced she was a Great Dane!
I found the scrawny little kitten in our garage one morning, cowering under an end table. At first, I thought the kitty was smoke grey, but under closer inspection, I discovered she was covered with a mixture of dirt and grease. I took her inside and bathed her in the kitchen sink, and as the grime dissolved, her snow-white coat was revealed.
After drying her, I fed her a can of tuna, which she gobbled down greedily. She lapped a little warm water, then curled up into a ball and went immediately to sleep on the kitchen counter. When the kids got home from school and discovered the white furry ball napping soundly, they immediately named their new pet. I guess it was inevitable that the feline ended up with the monicker "Snowball."
At the time, I also had a huge black Great Dane named Ebony. Eb was a gentle giant, and I knew she wouldn't hurt Snowball intentionally. Her sheer size, along with the fact that she had never been around cats, did concern me, however. Just one playful swipe of an enormous paw could injure the frail kitten, so I introduced the two gradually.
My fears were unfounded. Ebony and Snowball quickly became best friends. Ebony's puppies had recently been weaned and sold, and I've often wondered if maybe the dog saw Snowball as a surrogate pup. Whatever the reason, Ebby and Snowball became inseparable. They ate together, played together, and slept together. It was quite a sight to see this tiny little white kitten sleeping on the head of a massive black dog. Talk about juxtaposition!
Since Ebony "raised" Snowball, the cat learned dog habits. Both animals were inside/outside pets, and whenever I went outside for a walk in the woods, Ebony followed me, like any good dog would. Snowball followed me, too. When I played fetch with Ebbie, Snowball played, too. It was amusing to see the cat trying to retrieve the large rubber toy I used with Ebony. She would grab one corner of it between her tiny teeth and try to drag it back to me. Ebony would usually offer assistance, so here they'd come, Snowball holding one end and Ebony, with head lowered, carrying the other end.
Ebony always got excited when offered special treats. She would stand on her hind legs and "dance" around, whining. Snowball tried her best to mimic this behavior. She had the dancing part down pat, but she had a little trouble with the whining part. She eventually learned to "meow" with her mouth closed, which was sort of like a whine.
At first, I fed the two pals separately: cat food in one bowl and dog food in the other. Snowball, however, was not happy with this arrangement. She insisted on dining with Ebony, so I just placed both types of food in one large dish. Sometimes Ebbie ended up prefering the cat food, and Snowball ate the dog food, but the system worked. Both animals were healthy, so I figured they were getting the nutrients they needed.
The funniest doggie act Snowball attempted was the "doggiest" of dog acts: barking. Since we lived in the middle of nowhere, folks frequently stopped to ask for directions. Whenever Ebony barked at someone entering our yard, Snowball was right there with her, doing her best to initiate a good bark. Her first attempts came out as just a loud "meow," but with practice, she was able to achieve something like a "MOWF!" Yes, Snowball became quite a "watch cat" under Ebony's patient tutelage.
When a car pulled into our driveway, the furry friends went out to meet it. Ebony always looked stright into the driver's window, and if the window was down, she would stick her big head right into the car. Snowball, of course, was much too small for this kind of welcome. For a few months, she just paced around Ebbie's legs, frustrated that she didn't have the same vantage point. The cat solved the problem on her own, and I was shocked to see it the first time. Snowball learned to hop up on Ebony's broad back. I'm sure the unwary strangers thought they had encountered the Musicians of Bremen, from the Grimm Brothers fairy tale.
The unlikely friendship continued for six wonderful years. Then, at the age of nine, Ebony suffered a fatal heart attack. The whole family was devastated. Ebony had been an integral part of our family since she was six weeks old. But I think Snowball took Ebbie's death the hardest. For several days, she refused to eat. She searched and searched for Ebony in all their favorite haunts. She moped around for weeks, refusing to play even her favorite games. She dragged Ebony's old rubber toy into her inside bed and slept with it, I guess because it smelled like her absent companion.
Taking pity on our feline, we got another cat for the grief-stricken Snowball to befriend. At first, Snowball wanted nothing to do with the new pet. She totally ignored it. When it tried to get Snowball to play, Snowball would turn her head and look the other way. I was beginning to think we'd made a mistake.
Gradually, Snowball warmed up to Smoky, the new kitten. Amazingly, Snowball began instructing Smoky on how to become a good dog-cat. I guess old habits are hard to break.