Cat Psychology

My brother and I got home from vacation on Sunday, and by Monday morning we still hadn't seen hide nor hair of my sister's cat, Kiwi. This was not really a surprise to me, as Kiwi is an antisocial bitch, and she hates us nearly as much as we hate her. Amy was worried, however, and after some looking, Dan found Kiwi cowering under our porch. I wasn't there, so I can't really tell the story, but eventually Amy had to come home from vacation with Dad to coax Kiwi out of hiding.

Since Kiwi has returned to indoor living, she has been more schizophrenic than I ever thought an animal could be. The first time I saw her, she mewed at me as I walked away, then rolled around on my feet, expecting me to pet her. When I stopped, she hissed at me and ran off. The past few nights have gotten even weirder. Last night she came into my bed and let me pet her for thirty minutes before hissing at me and running off.

It's almost as if she's so desperate for human attention that she's willing to stoop to any level (even letting me touch her), but she becomes disgusted with herself during the contact. Do cats get post-traumatic stress syndrome?

As a postscript, this is my one-thousandth blog entry, according to the counter at the top of the Movable Type interface. Here's to one thousand more.

July 10, 2003 - 11:40 AM