I’ve never been what you could call an “animal ” person. It’s more from lack of experience than dislike. When I was a little girl, I briefly had a cat named Tuffy. One day when I came home from school, the cat couldn’t be found. When I asked my dad about it, he explained that Tuffy had been drafted by the Navy to be a ship’s cat, and would return when his hitch was up. He made it sound so reasonable that I bought his explanation hook, line and sinker. After that, I didn’t have any other pets. I figured they’d just be lured away by recruiters. After my mother died and my dad remarried, his new wife had a dog, but it was never my dog, so I remained pretty petless my whole life.
But I’ve always been fascinated by the animal mind. This year I watched a new show called “America’s Greatest Dog” where dogs and their owners shared a house and participated in challenges to win the title. The more I watched, the more I became convinced that these dogs really understood their masters and would do anything to please them. It could just be that I attribute human qualities to animals and, in reality, they’re not as savvy as I think. But it did make me wonder how much animals think. Can they plan? Can they scheme?
Anyway, what brought this to mind was the new family that just moved in next door to me. They a have a big black dog who seems to be confined to the house except when taken outdoors to the woods in the back and ordered to “Poop!” In those brief moments of freedom, I see him jumping around, looking up at his master or mistress with this goofy look on his face. And I imagine him saying, “Come on! Let’s play! Let’s go into these woods and smell things! Come on, it will be fun! “ Unfortunately his owners aren’t interested in anything but him doing his business so they can go back inside.
One day he was out on their balcony, which is on the second floor and it was the first time I had ever heard him barking constantly. I walked out on my balcony to see what was going on. And there, lying down on the driveway, directly in the dog’s field of vision, was a wild black cat that lives in the woods. She was sprawled out on the concrete, looking straight up at him barking his guts out and, …or so I imagined… smiling! The more he’d bark, the more she was seemingly enjoying it. As a matter of fact, at one point, she had the audacity to yawn hugely, then fixed her eyes back on him. All this time the dog was getting more and more frantic. Finally his owners brought him inside. This has happened a couple of other times, always with the cat centering herself down on the driveway, gazing straight up at the dog. However, lately things have been more or less quiet.
Then, just a few minutes ago, I was trying to read, and I heard him again. This time his barking was reaching a fever pitch and it looked like he wanted to throw himself over the balcony. I looked down, but saw nothing. He kept barking. Then, as I scanned the scene, there, in a neighbor’s back yard, sitting serenely and gazing straight at the dog with gold slits for eyes…was the black cat! It reminded me of one of those horror movies where the police keep finding mutilated, bloody bodies, and somewhere in the crowd you keep seeing this same guy,who looks like a zombie, standing there all innocent with a little smile on his face.
So, is it all just coincidence? Can a cat really deliberately torment a dog? Is the cat truly getting off on this, or is it just my imagination? Does the cat sense those rare times when the dog will be trapped there up on the balcony, and then slowly saunter over just to taunt him? Is the cat EVIL? Is the cat even a real cat, or the ghost of a long-dead devil cat, and the reason the dog goes crazy is that he can sense it’s from the spirit world? Will one day the cat show up right there on the balcony and eat the dog’s brains? And then, will it will do a crazy feline victory dance and move on to the next dog?
Or have I just been reading too many Stephen King novels?
Oh yes, the cat knows exactly what it’s doing. It is deliberately tormenting the dog. We once had a Siamese cat that lived to torment our poor innocent dachshund. The cat would perch on the arm of a chair that sat next to the hallway. When he heard the dog happily trotting down the hall toward the living room, the cat would hunker down, get the most evil look on its face, and wait for the dog to get right next to the chair. Then…..POUNCE, bam, bam, bam with its front paws and the poor dog would yelp, cry and run for cover.
It was diabolical, but funny…very funny. We couldn’t believe the dog would keep falling for it. Your black cat is having the time of its life with its new dog “toy”.
I laughed when I read the Stephen King line! It’s Cujo the Cat! Actually Pet Sematary was about a cat brought back from the dead wasn’t it…
I do think cats can pester dogs. And I’ve seen birds (one at least) pick at a cat who was locked inside the house.
I don’t like to attribute human emotions to animals, but I do think they know how to pester
And I wouldn’t put it past a cat one bit.
Oh, and that was a pretty clever story your dad told!
One of my neighbors cats has free reign of the neighborhood. She does similar type things to totally undo my mini schnauzer. I am convinced she knows full well what she’s doing and she is completely enjoying herself.
Hope your childhood cat enjoyed its stint in the Navy. I had a cat as a child. Her name was Thomasina. After a week we figured out my little sister was allergic and bye-bye cat. It was sad.