About two years ago when i was picking my son up from daycare one evening, Denise the daycare mom (as i used to call her), asked me if i wanted a cat. I said that i already had a cat, a miserable old biddy of a cat that did not care for other cats within a one mile radius of her domain.
Somewhere between the words "No" and "Already own one grouchy cat" she said to her daughter "Go bring that cat up for Chris." Before i knew it i was holding this runty little gray kitten in my arms. I guess he was the last of a litter that a cat she found wandering the neighborhood and took in had had. All the rest of the kittens got snatched up by her other daycare clients except this scraggly beast.
Well that cat looked at me and i looked at him and before i knew it i was walking out to my car, kid in one hand, kitten in the other.
It was not long before the runty kitten grew up into a huge tom cat with major attitude. My son tried to bond with him but he only bonds with humans i guess on "his terms" which means when he feels like sleeping on your head or licking your nose then you need to deal otherwise you are basically a meal ticket.
My son calls him Igor the Idiot. When he came up with the name i about died laughing. I guess one day Igor tried to bite his feet while he was sleeping and woke him up. My son, 4 at the time, did not find this the least amusing. So when he jumped up screaming from his bed he said "I hate that cat! I am going to call him Igor the Idiot because he is stupid!" and that was that, the name kind of stuck. We don't use the Idiot part anymore but the name Igor pretty much fits him like a glove.
Igor is huge, everywhere he sleeps he pretty much takes over. He spreads out on my bed on his back with his paws in the air. He will sleep pretty much the entire day away and not have a care in the world. He gets along pretty well with the dog and likes to jump on his back and bite his ears. Sometimes the dog plays along and they wrestle on the floor together. When a friend of mine came over and saw them playing like this one evening she was pretty amazed. She thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen.
Igor likes to what do you call it..troll the hood. He will go out as soon as the sun sets and come home just in time for breakfast. We had him "fixed" and figured that might keep him home nights but no such luck. He walks across the street to the park and disappears after awhile and we are not sure where he goes after that.
We went away for five days and had a friend watching him. She came over every day and one night he slipped out the door between her legs. Of course she was panicked because he never came back home until i did. As he sauntered in through the garage and into the house with me, Igor did not seem too upset about being locked out for 3 days. My guess is he probably has several haunts that he goes to for a free meal ticket, a warm bed and an ear rub or two. He has no loyalty...
I also forget that he is in fact a predator. I have never had a cat that did much as far as catching critters until Igor. I find mice, birds and other beasts scattered in the back yard. One day i saw him batting around something by his food dish in the house. As i got closer it flew past me with him chasing behind it and a whir of feathers fluttering everywhere. Another day he came proudly over to me ready to present me with the biggest blackbird i ever saw. It literally hung out both sides of his mouth. I was mortified! He actually looked like he was pleased with the find and that i should be pleased to have such a magnificent gift from him. I took one look at him and said "Drop it!" thinking for a moment i was telling my dog to let go of a chick leg or get his nose out of the garbage pail. Igor stopped, looked at me and let that bird go.
Despite the fact that he is clearly a bit self-centered and ungrateful, i really do love this big old cat. Since we have had him sadly we had to let our old biddy go. She was 18 and not doing well at all. I miss her but Igor has helped to fill the gap for me. Every night he perches on my chest and purrs in my ear. I rub his head and he purrs some more. Then after about 5 minutes he jumps off my bed to spend a few minutes wrapped around my son's head on his bed, goes downstairs and stretches out on the couch like he owns it. Who am i kidding? He owns everything, including his humans.
So what have i learned since Igor has "owned me?" Well, I guess that you have to learn to let things go right? Chill out. Go with the flow. You also have to learn how to stop and smell the roses. Learn how to kind of live life large right? Go out and have fun once and a while. I am not sure he thinks about much else but food and sleep but maybe he is very complex? Maybe i am not giving him any credit, maybe he is brilliant and just playing dumb? I don't know...
My guess is that on most days he is probably going "is my food bowl full?" "there is a leftover poo in my box are you going to take care of it or should i find a corner in the house to do my business in?" or "are you leaving yet, i need the bed now." Cats are great aren't they? My husband says to me when he sees Igor belly up and paws in the air with what appears to be a smile on his face "I want that cat's life, he has the life of Riley."
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