Thursday, September 09, 2010

Dominance games

I guess it had to happen. After seven years of second fiddle to Mencken in the cat hierarchy, The Mighty Fang has decided to take his place on top of the heap. The basic effect is that both of them try to stare each other down while doing that slow sideways spiral looking for an opening with their fur puffed to make them look the size of friggin' St. Bernards, while making the most ear-shattering screeches, yowls, and howls. Cat yowls and howls disturbed my evening to the point last night where I stuffed TMF into my bedroom and closed the door so the rest of us could get some peace and quiet, and then this morning I'm trying to get some friggin' sleep and the two of'em get it on under my bed. Have *you* ever tried to sleep with a catfight going on under your pillow?!

Hopefully they get this sorted out today while I'm at work, because frankly, I'm tired of it. Cats. Siiiiiigh.....

-- Badtux the Sleep-deprived Penguin

3 comments:

  1. We have one undisputed ruler of our 5 cats. And of course she's the smallest. She will force a comrade in a corner & hit him/her repeatedly in the face when necessary, but usually all that's needed is the stink eye in their general direction, maybe accompanied by a roar (OK, a squeak, she can't really meow properly) and/or hiss.

    The Queen does have a favorite, though, her "sister" who was in the same cage with her at the shelter when we got them. They play fight, though sometimes it escalates.

    Two rather rotund boys also play fight, which is just too cute to describe.

    We also have one clearly at the bottom. The other three don't see to care that much.

    As for the keeping us awake, that's not really a problem. What is a problem is when they want us to get up. A claw on the scalp is effective, and more than a little annoying, in that regard.

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  2. I used to have three cats in a smallish studio apartment. More often than not, I'd fall asleep with a cat curled up under each arm and one on my chest. It was all sorts of fun when the cat under the right arm would take exception to the presence of a cat under the left arm, and they'd go at it. Eventually the cat on the chest would get tired of it and start popping the crap out of both the others, and I'd wake up with a three-way cat fight in my face.

    Having them decide to duke it out under the bed was kind of a relief.

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  3. Dope, yeah, my guys will do the paw to face thing when they want me to get up, especially TMF. Annoying. Which is the point, of course.

    jbrock, they started out getting into it on top of my bed that evening. I rolled over and said to them, "What, exactly, do you think you're doing?". Neither of them wanted to challenge THE alpha cat (me), so they decided to go into it elsewhere, I went to sleep to the sound of howling from the living room (down the hall)...

    - Badtux the Cat-awakened Penguin

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