To images

April 2016

We spent a rainy week looking after Oakley. The moment there was a break in the rain, she would be out in the garden, smelling the vegetation, looking wistfully at the birds mocking her from the safety of the tree branches above, or stalking the squirrels that jumped over the fence as they sneaked in from the park behind the house.  The rest of the time she was awake, she stalked us!

She was one of those cats that looks at you with a penetrating stare that makes you feel like she’s trying to read your mind. Most likely, she was just waiting for us to “do the right thing”, i.e. stop whatever we were doing, and pay attention to her – be it in the form of cuddles, or games!  She particularly enjoying chasing a ball which was nothing more than a scrunched up piece of paper; mostly, she preferred it when we threw it for her so she could chase after it, specially up the stairs so she could then send it bouncing down the steps.

She did have a tendency to bite however, mostly when she didn’t get her own way, like a child throwing a tantrum. For example, she tried to bite me simply because I stopped stroking her when she was enjoying the attention on my lap; once, she tried to bite my legs as I was preparing her dinner, whilst she meowed incessantly at my feet, presumably because I was taking too long? She also retaliated if we (gently!) encouraged her to jump off the dinner table (where she wasn’t allowed).

The rainy weather meant she wasn’t keen to go out, and being stuck indoors meant she felt bored and more prone to vent her frustration in negative ways. Thankfully, she was so keen to play that it was very easy to get her to use her pent-up energy in more positive ways. She soon learnt that an attempt to bite would mean the fun would cease immediately, and by day 3 she had stopped the shenanigans and calmed down considerably. The power of play and its positive impact on behaviour never ceases to amaze us!