Happy Valentine’s Day from Puerto Vallarta
Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody. I hope romance is in your life if that’s what you want; I envy those with time for it. I have a love story to tell that keeps getting hung up on the same issues, and I don’t know how to fix it and make it come out ‘happily ever after’ in the end.
It’s three AM; just a couple of hours ago, my peaceful neighborhood downtown is pierced with screaming, loud enough to wake me from a dead sleep. I get up, follow the wretched noise onto my patio at the back of the house, and calmingly try to quiet my cat Bogie, hanging by his claws on the fence that keeps him safely indoors but still outside. Inches away is a white cat with orange splashes having a morning meander across Vallarta’s rooftops.
The intruding kitty is unperturbed, and I yell (quietly!) and clap my hands, and he – or she – leisurely moves on.
Bogie’s yowls settle into whimpers as he catches his Maine Coon breath and subsides into plaintive meows like a kitten. I have learned from similar mornings not to grab him but to let him unlock himself from the wire fencing five feet off the floor and leap onto the table. I talk to him quietly and gently pat his head; he jumps down – I hope to come back to bed for another couple of hours before the alarm. He reaches out with front paws, wraps them around my calf, and bites. It’s hard enough to break the skin.
In two days, on the 16th, it will mark nine months Bogie has lived with me. And, with the exception of teeth and claw marks on various parts of me, our life together is perfect.
Maybe he is bored? I try to play with him daily, always gently, never ‘roughhousing’ with him; he is bigger than me! He has a cat tree with scratching posts (and there is also the furniture). He is about 8 years old, so he is not teething.
After each incident, there is a lag of trust on my part and remorse on his (my vet assures me that’s an actual thing with cats). I would be so grateful if anyone could share a trick with me to change this violent behavior. I do not want to respond violently after he bites; it’s already too late, and I don’t believe that’s the answer. Bogie is my darling. If it just takes time, I am willing to invest it.
So, to my readers, help make my Valentine’s Day and all my days going forward with this otherwise perfect cat, better and with less blood (mine!) spilled; I am anxious to hear it.
All things eventually respond to kindness and love. Sending hugs and kisses daily to all of you, but exceptionally long hugs today in celebration of Saint Valentine.