Conference misery::feline_v1

3866.0. "My friend's ex-tomcat has a GREAT memory" by CADSYS::RICHARDSON () Thu Aug 02 1990 16:37

    Last weekend, my old friends who are owned by the famous NUGGET (13
    year old ex-tomcat) called me up.  We had not seen them for a few
    months because they are both doing major work on their house (which was
    not completely finished when they moved into it a year and half or so
    ago, and still isn't) and because John (a former DECcie now at DG) has
    been working 70-80+ hours a week lately.  John and his wife had decided
    that they HAD to take a break, and were actually calling me from their
    cabin in Vermont to make sure I would be able to drop in daily to feed
    good old Nugget, which of course I am glad to do (he's a good little
    fellow, although very small for a male kitty: about 6 pounds!  He
    looks like a big kitten next to either of my big ex-females,
    especially JFCL, who is nearly 13 pounds).
    
    John was afraid that Nugget, who is an indoor-outdoor kitty (you can't
    see the nearest neighbor from their place, except in the winter if you
    know just what direction to look when the leaves are down), might not
    even remember me - he says the kitty is getting old and his behavior
    has changed somewhat - Nugget used to often get into fights with the
    neighbor's big black lab where they used to live, and has a lot of scar
    tissue on him (so does the dog!), so he acts a lot older than my 12.5
    year old indoor girls do.  Luckily there are no other territorial
    animals near where they live now, so Nugget keeps the mice down without
    getting into fights these days.
    
    So, I was real happy when I pulled up to John's house Monday night to
    find a familiar little dusty orange form appear around the corner of
    the house and come running up to his "substitute human slave" to demand
    to be let in through the PEOPLE door (he had gone out the KITTY door to
    the back deck), just like he used to do when I used to have to care for
    him more often.  The little fellow obviously had NO trouble recognizing
    his substitute human even though he had not seen me since last fall.
    John used to always get ME to drop in to look after Nugget because
    Nugget likes me, and will even tolerate being fed pills if I do it
    (which used to happen every time he and the dog would have at it); he
    doesn't like just any random human.
    
    I wonder how good kitties' memories really are?
    
    
    /Charlotte

    Well Charlotte, I think that they remember NICE people, as you
    discovered!