Wednesday, April 6, 2016

E is for Each One is Different



E is for Each One is Different--Especially Samantha and Teddy

On Monday, I wrote about our first cat, Samantha. Mike H. said that I should write about another cat we had, Teddy. So here it goes.

Teddy
After about a year, we were enjoying Samantha so much, we decided to add another kitty to the mix. One of Ward's friends had an abandoned group of kittens living under his house that needed homes. There were five wild kittens--meaning they would run away anytime you got near them. We put out a saucer of food and they all darted out and started to eat. As we approached, they all darted back under the house, except one yellow and white kitten. It looked at us worriedly but kept eating. We scooped it up and took it home.

We were well "experienced" cat owners at this point and decided that the kitten we had captured was male. We named it Teddy after another cat I knew who was named after Teddy Roosevelt. It turns out that the kitten was actually a female, so instead of Theodore, she became Theodosa, or Teddy for short.

Well, our sweet Samantha, freaked out when we brought Teddy into her territory. Samantha hissed, growled, and swatted at Teddy anytime she got close. Other times, Samantha just hid behind the curtains. This was the beginning, middle, and end of the relationship between Teddy and Samantha that would last the next 13 years. Teddy took it all in stride and learned not to challenge Samantha, but Samantha never stopped hissing at the "intruder".

Despite the less than cuddly relationship between the two cats, they were still very entertaining. And each one was different. Samantha was high-strung and very smart. Teddy was laid-back and had street smarts--but not so much in the pure intelligence kind.

Samantha hissing at Teddy.
(The picture has faded over the years.)
We saw these differences in various ways. Both cats drank from the a drip in the bathtub. Samantha  would stretch up and drink from the end of the faucet. However, Teddy would drink from the small puddle under it. She would drink away until one of the drips fell on her head. Then she'd look up and wonder where it came from. She never figured this out.

Other times, if we left a glass out with a little water in the bottom, Samantha would gently tip it over with her paw, and drink the water that spilled out. Teddy got her head stuck in the glass more than once trying to reach what was in the bottom.

In other circumstances, Teddy seemed like the "smart" one. If another cat or dog came into the house, Teddy was right out front, defending things with a growl and a swat, but Samantha would hide behind a curtain. (This always surprised us because she was so aggressive to Teddy.) Sometimes, Teddy would hide  behind something, then swat Samantha on the behind as she walked by.  Teddy would always be gone before Samantha could turn around to get her.

This is already too long, or I would tell you more. Maybe another time. However, I will say that we've had four more cats since then, each with their own unique personalities, but none of them have ever been as different as Samantha and Teddy.


18 comments:

  1. When it comes to cats, I totally agree each one is different even though they all are adorable. Fun post.

    Mason
    Alex's Ninja Minion

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    1. They each have a way of working their way into your heart. Some quietly and some by just being crazy. Thanks for visiting, Mason.

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  2. Cats can be so funny to watch! I love the bit about Teddy slyly swatting Samantha, then disappearing.

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    1. It was really funny. Teddy's favorite place to swat Samantha was when she was entering the litter box which was behind the door. Teddy knew exactly what she was doing.

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  3. And just like with people intellect is one thing, street smarts another. You can't truly value one over the other, they are both require smarts, just different smart.

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    1. Your are absolutely right about people having different smarts/talents that each have their own value. I think, in certain circumstances, we tend to forget that.

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  4. She is a gorgeous cat. When two cats are put together, we assume they should like each other. And yet how often do two people put together, two strangers, become friends. Not always. Anyhow, great story about Teddy.

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    1. Cats are solitary, territorial animals (except for lions) and really shouldn't be expected to get along. However, they usually eventually work it out. But these two never did.

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  5. Cat stories never get old. My mom and I can spend crazy amount of time on the phone comparing tales of what our respective cats have done, and we never seem to tire of it. :)

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    1. It's a favorite topic of family conversations--cats. We talk about Teddy and Samantha or the ones we have now. There seem to be endless stories. When they were younger, a lot of the stories that my kids wrote for school involved our cats. Did your kids use yours as subject material?

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    2. Oh yes, especially my daughter. She has a knack for artwork and the cat is frequently featured. Both kids like to take pictures of him (yes, we are old-school with digital cameras, not phones).

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    3. Old school here with cameras also. A point and shoot camera and no camera phone. However, my husband now has a smart phone for work, but that's not for our personal use. The flip phones we have now don't hold a charge, so a smart phone may be coming soon.

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  6. Awww... the faucet story totally cracks me up. Smoky loves to hand out in the bathroom but freaks if a drop of water falls on him.

    Anyhow, I think you're fortunate that they tolerated each other as well as they did. I'm not sure if this is true in general or just with the dozen or so cats that I've had, but I've never known unrelated females to get along very well. I had two that I had to keep completely separated in order to avoid bloodshed! I read once that in the "wild" (whatever that means for domestic cats) females tend to maintain small, separate territories while males have larger overlapping territories - so I guess it sorta makes sense that the girls would have "issues" sharing space. :-)

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    1. We didn't have a lot of bloodshed, but the vet once said that it looked like Teddy's nose had been broken from the swats that Samantha had given her. When we moved from a smaller one-story house to a larger two-story house, things got a little better because it was easier for them to not run into each other.

      The differences in male/female territories is interesting and could explain some of the problems they had with each other.

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  7. Thanks, June. I don't know why I remember Teddy more than Sam, but I remember her quite well - and her cute little travelling box. Reminds me of our old cats, Bubba and Kudzu. Bubba was NOLA-born (under a shotgun uptown) and made the move to SoCal. Kudzu was born under a house in Orange next to our apartment, a crazy little calico kitten. Bubba never much cared for the little upstart. However, when our kids came along, it was Kudzu who freaked out and became, overnight, a stowaway, hiding cat afraid of the girls. Bubba was never much concerned about the girls and would let them pet her, etc. Kudzu? No way - "Don't want no part of them kids, you traitors." Bubba did eventually tolerate, at best, Kudzu. Poor old Kudzu spent her last years (she lived til 19) in hiding, constantly afraid one of the girls - or eventually our dog Sophie - might come near her.

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    1. Teddy was born under a shotgun house on Algiers Point. When Wally reached the toddler stage and was interested Samantha, we had a couple of tense months. I thought if he got scratched once or twice, he would learn to leave her alone. And I thought if he bothered her a couple of times, she would just move to higher ground where he couldn't reach her. I thought they would work it out. Even with coaching neither one of them gave in. It would take several months before they got tired of each other.

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  8. Teddy is so cute. I had that situation. Gaining another cat but the cat that came first was not too keen on it. Eventually they tolerated each other.

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    1. The cats we've had since then have eventually learned to live together, but Teddy and Samantha never did.

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What do you think?