Skippy and the Bully

I would say that since the summer of this year the relationship between Skippy and Kitty has improved significantly. The direct cause of this has to do with a general improvement in the cat's temperament. It seems that Kitty no longer hisses when Skippy walks by. The two of them have peacefully passed away hours within a few feet of each other as they napped on our bed. And Skippy has been allowed to barrel down the living room corridor unhindered whenever she enters the house. Needless to say, it's been a relatively peaceful home these past five weeks. What has effected this change in our usually callous cat? I don't know; but just this week she relapsed into her old ways.

In our kitchen we have two water dishes out for the animals, along with Skippy's Brain Diet food (the cat's food is up high because Skippy was eating it). Skippy began eating, following her usual routine (totally a future blog post in itself) of grabbing a few pieces of food from her dish, bringing them into the living room, eating them and returning for more. Kitty, who was lurking nearby, placed herself beside Skippy's dish and decided to interrupt the routine. When Skippy returned for another mouthful, the cat hissed repeatedly, driving her away. Skippy tried a second time but there the cat remained, hissing over and over until Skippy skulked away, crying. She jumped up onto the couch where my wife was sitting and began to shake.

Skippy had gotten used to this improved level of tolerance and had become quite complacent with Kitty. Maybe this was intentional on the cat's part: some elaborate scheme to get Skippy to let her guard down, perhaps. It's difficult to tell with cats sometimes, how much of their behaviour is planned with an end result in mind, or how much is merely a whim. Either way, I think Kitty simply saw an opportunity to amuse herself, and us too, as it turns out; because, as much as we sympathize with Skippy's plight in this situation, we can't ignore how funny it was.