Strange Sounds - Part 3

Continued: A curious thing I learned during the bottle feeding stage is that cat babies don’t know how to go to the bathroom.

Growing Pains

I noticed she wasn’t using the litter box, and looked it up. Sure enough. I had to rub her tiny butt with a wash cloth to simulate the Momma’s tongue. This would trigger a certain reflex, and like a tube of toothpaste she’d squirt out astounding amounts of brown matter. But it only took a couple of tries of putting her in the litter box, making pawing motions with her front paws in the litter, before she mastered the task herself.

Walli grew like crazy and the more she grew, the more her fiery red-head personality established itself. She loved to kill her tiger toy, and wrestle down our hands and anything else she’d get her paws on. She loved her fishing toy and would jump several feet up in the air to catch it.


Walli and Tiger Toy

She took to stalking my feet and hunting them, literally climbing up my bare legs when she “caught” me. This was in the summertime and I lived in shorts and capri pants, so my ankles and calves were a streaky, bloody mess for weeks.

Walli on the attack - showing off those little claws

Gradually she gained control of her claw usage. But no sooner had she stopped scratching me to pieces before she discovered another weapon. Our little red-head would be the most loving creature – she would purr loudly as soon as you as much as touched her, and curl up on your lap being sweet as can be for any length of time. Only to suddenly turn around and attack your hand with her teeth. Great.

These “attack-the-hand-that-pets-you” games became more and more frequent and intense. I could tell she really enjoyed them, too. She’d size me up from a distance, and then out of the blue she’d attack and bite. This started getting annoying, especially since she was incredibly affectionate – when she wanted to be.

The vet told me later this is fairly common behavior in “bottle babies” as they don’t have other cats to socialize them and teach them appropriate cat behavior. As she spent most days alone while we were at work, by the time we’d get home, she would be completely starved for attention.

M and I decided another cat might be good for her. I didn’t give it all that much thought until one day…

Continued…