I was originally going to call this cat vs. squirrel but a short time later I realized it was more an issue of an Eliza Doolittle transformation of my big guy (a.k.a. Mojo).
The morning started as it always does. I opened the back and front doors to get a cross breeze before I had to hunker down into the hermit like existence of a Virginia summer. Mojo did as he always does, once he stops screaming for and then inhaling his breakfast, he planted himself at the front door. It is much more interesting than the back as the back door opens on to my second story deck. There isn’t a lot of activity out there so needless to say he prefers the comings and goings at the front door. At one point I noticed Mojo was in attack mode - for a cat that means ears alert, body tense and back end wiggling. I looked for the cause of the behavior and found a squirrel sitting on his hind legs taunting Mojo. At this point I decided squirrels were bullies. He felt he had the upper hand. You could almost see the squirrel telling Mojo that he was a pampered, spoiled house cat, which of course he now is. The bully didn’t realize he was up against a street-wise feline. As I have said Mojo came from the streets. While he is well behaved and when I said no and shooed the squirrel, Mojo backed down. I’m sure the squirrel was thinking, from his perch in the tree, that Mojo was a wimp. I feel confident, however, that had I let the big guy out the door he would have been eating squirrel for brunch.
A short time after this occurrence I heard chattering and saw tail twitching. I then spied a robin on the sidewalk. It was then I realized I had an Eliza Doolittle on my hands. To very loosely paraphrase Eliza from the classic Lerner & Loewe musical ‘My Fair Lady’ - “I’m a good boy, I am. I done wash my face and hands before I come....” That’s Mojo, he’s a sweet cat and mostly well mannered. Like Eliza, he does still have some rough edges. I have no idea how long he was on the streets, I only know that he was. Like any creature who has lived on the streets for any length of time he has had to develop survival skills. Now he has come to me for gentrification. He wants to be 'more genteel-like' and I aim to see that it happens. For six months into the experiemnt he is doing well, I will keep you posted. Hopefully my screen door will survive the summer......
