Texas Cats are Weird
Being Trained by My Cats
Here’s the latest in the things that my sweet yet curiously weird felines request that I do, but first a little back story. My two fur babies are Milo (3 years old male orange tabby) and Shadow (2.75 years old female black ragdoll mix). It is wonderful watching them grow as their personalities are so different. Milo is a cave dweller, and Shadow is a tree dweller. As a tree dweller, Shadow must be on the highest spot in the room, which means when we are in kitchen, she must be on top of the cabinets.
Please Rub My Nose
Like normal cats, they love to receive scritches around their chin and their ears, and Milo is a lap cat. Now here is where it starts to get weird. Milo is only a lap cat when I am sitting in the recliner in the living room. If I am not in that recliner and he wants to be in my lap, he will whine until I stop and drop whatever I am doing, and follow him through the house, stopping periodically to touch my toes, I mean bend down and scritch his head to which every other time he will leap up on his hind legs and have me rub his nose along with petting his head. Yup, you read that right, he wants me to RUB HIS NOSE!
We never actually make it to the recliner, most times he wants me to open closed doors so he can investigate the contents of the pantry, laundry room, closet, bathroom, you see where I am going. And, Milo gets really excited about this, he is purring loudly with that extra thrill, his tail is pointed up with a little slight wag, his eyes are smiling, and sometimes he does a hop twist leap to let me know how ecstatic he is that he is taking me for a walk — we’ll get back to that in another blog entry.
Texas Cats are Weird
These cats are weird. Shadow is not a lap cat. When Shadow wants scritches she will either ask to be picked up and carried like a baby, or get in bed with me, knead me, head butt me a few times, then curl up in my arms like a baby while I give her scritches. Shadow is also, quite vocal and talks to me throughout the day. Seriously, you say hello or hi Shadow and she says hi back to you, but only to me, because I am her hoomin.
Ok, getting back to these weird Texas cats. There must be something in the DNA of these texan kitties, because I have not experienced this with any other cat, nor have I seen this behavior in videos on the internet, or television programs. A few months back, my cats have been coming up to me in the bed and asking for scritches, when I reach down to scritch their head, they turn around with tail pointing up in the air and anus in my face, requesting that I scritch the base of their tail. Not the side where the anus is, the other side. Serioulsy, they want their tails scritched and it excites them as much as scritching their chins and ears. Since Milo is three months older than Shadow he does things first and then she does it.
Catnip and Tail Scratches
For example, when I adopted the kittens, Shadow was 5 months old and Milo was 8 months old. Shadow had zero interest in catnip. When Milo discovered catnip he was rolling in it. He literally would pull the pot of catnip towards himself and just roll his face in it. He only stopped because I was staring at him in amazement. To this day, I am kicking myself that I didn’t have camera ready to record it, because that would have been internet gold.
A few months after Milo started demanding tail scritches, Shadow started requesting it, and its like OMG, this is the best thing since catnip. So along with the kneading, head butts, curling up in my arms, demanding to be carried like a baby, insisting I dry her off with the towel when she comes in from the rain (that’s a whole ‘nother blog), she demands that her tail is scritched. But folks, that is not where the weirdness ends. Now, both Shadow & Milo are demanding that their nose is rubbed.
See, Milo thought he was slick, taking me for a walk around the house, leaping up to meet my hand as I bend down to touch him and incidentally rub his nose. These four-legged furry creatures are smart. He knew exactly what he was doing. So today, when my cat overlord Milo demanded that I stop & drop and follow him, I got up and said to him, “look if you want your nose rubbed, just say so, I’m not following you.” So, I lifted up his royal majesty, all 15 – 18 pounds of him, all muscle, and placed him on the bed, and just rubbed his nose, no head scritches, no tail scritches, no fluffing his pouchy pouchy pouchy (that’s that fluffy thing on his belly), just nose rubs. Dude was ok with that. When I stopped he would nudge my hand to get me to rub his nose some more. This went on for a little while and then I wrote this blog, because these Texas cats are weird.
Milo went back out into the backyard to eat grass, catch bugs, and chitter at the birds, and Shadow came inside, while I was putting the finishing touches on this blog entry to, you guessed right, get her tail scritched, cause that’s what her hoomin does, scritches her tail.
Milo is no longer with us. He passed away on December 23, 2024. Just a couple of weeks from his 11th birthday. Milo is deeply loved and deeply missed. You can read more about Milo and see pictures of him on my fine art photography website:
Remembering Milo: https://www.tanyaowens.com/post/remembering-milo-a-tribute-to-my-meow-face
In Loving Memory - Milo: https://www.tanyaowens.com/milo
And on my Positive Awe™ Newsletter:
