by Lin Hill

Created on: July 20, 2007

Do cats understand us? Well I definitely think so and so does my husband. I have this wonderful cat called "Mittzs" and he is the best thing that has ever happened to me since cats were invented. Do I think that cats are all alike? Definitely not! I soon learned that after I adopted this cat!

Before Mittzs came to live with us I was a dog person myself. It just happened that I rescued him from being sent to the animal shelter, along with the rest of his brothers and sisters,because I could not stand to listen to my grand daughters crying because her daddy would not let her keep them all.

I named him Mittzs because of his extra toes that he sports on each front paw and he sure uses them to the best of his abilities. He can use those front paws to pick up and spin many of his toys around and it often looks like he is using them in the same way that human hands are used. He loves to let you know when he wants something from you for he has developed certain patterns that tell you exactly what he wants. His main pattern of behavior when he wants your attention is to lay himself right down in front of you and stretch out full length and meow and purr until you give him your attention.

He also loves to stand guard at the door of our apartment and if you want to go out you usually have to wait until he decides that its okay for you to go, or you shoo him away when he does not want you to leave. Every morning my husband is always woken up by Mr. Mittzs coming onto the bed and bunting him in the face until he gets up. And even then when my husband wants to settle down to having coffee and reading the paper, Mr. Mittzs needs come first. My husband's usual remark is "he is the king of the castle, we only pay the rent". He also goes through a few choice set patterns when he wants us to play. He will come up to us and give us a bunt in the face if we are sitting down in our lounge chairs, or he will slightly swat at us or nip at our fingers, and if that does not catch our attention he will then jump onto our armchair, then off again and run down the hall to the closest door jam and jump up and hang on about four to five feet up the door jam as if he was climbing a tree. The weird thing about this performance is he has no claws with which to hang on with, but he still manages to do this anyway.

He loves bugs. I bet there is never a bug in our apartment that he hasn't managed to catch and eat. Even when we put him out on the balcony when we go out there just to sit, he constantly watches for one to accidentally come into his range. We have made this balcony cat proof just for him so he can join us out in the fresh air. We have surrounded the balcony with a four foot, chicken-wire fence. But we still have had to harness and leash-train him because we live in an apartment complex on the eleventh floor and we do have a neighbor's balcony that joins ours. I do not think that this cat realizes that he is so high up off the ground.

He sure knows the word "Treats" though and comes scurrying every time he hears it. He is very smart cat too. When he misbehaves he recognizes a firm voice command and obeys immediately when that command is given along with firmness. I find that if you raise your cat with a set pattern every day they soon learn to adjust themselves to that pattern. It was put to the test one time when we went away on holidays and we left our cat in the care of a friend. When we returned, our friend was worried because the cat would not drink any water out of the container that was put down beside his food for him. It was because we had forgotten to tell our friend that our cat only drinks water from his own special pail that is kept in the bathtub just for him.

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