A Way to Persuade a Cat
I would like to tell you a story of my clever cats (in fact, I have two
in my flat at the moment). I’ve had my older cat for about a year and a half. Frankly
speaking, I was there when my cat was born. I fed her when her mother refused to; I played
with her and took her for walks on warm autumn evenings. I loved my little cat and she
seemed to love me too. Mania (that’s her name) used to come to me if I had a headache;
she cheered me up if I felt lonely or miserable; and she always met me at the door when I
came back home. In fact, we were a jolly good company, having fun together on long winter
evenings. In fact, she never left me for a single moment when I was at home, and was the
most well-behaved kitten I had ever seen in my life.
But one day our life changed. My father brought another kitten to me
and said: “Look here! Either you take this kitten and try to give it to somebody, or it
will die. Your younger brother will make a steak from it; pull his legs out and screw its
head off, or pick its eyes out...” What was I to do? Of course, I couldn’t let this
young monster (I mean my brother, not the cat) kill the poor animal. So I immediately made
up my mind and took the fluffy creature from my father’s hands. It was the size of a
hamster. It opened its blue eyes and looked at me, as if he were making some extremely
difficult decision. And then it licked my palm as if it were saying thank you.
Several minutes later I called my cat and said: “Look, Maniasha, I
have a present for you” and I put the kitten on the floor. Mania looked absolutely
shocked. She didn’t expect anything like that from me. She raised her tail, made a
strange sound, and...ran away.
I took Alex (that’s what I decided to call my new kitten) to the
kitchen and fed him out of my hands. He seemed to be getting used to the situation and
didn’t look so panic-stricken as before. Hardly had he finished eating, when Mania
rushed towards him, raised her paw, and pushed him away from me. But Alex was a brave
kitten. He wouldn’t let any animal bully him; so he ran in Mania’s direction, jumped
at her, and scratched her nose. So surprised was I, that I didn’t know at first what to
do. But in a couple of seconds I remembered a piece of advice that my friend had given me.
“Never kick or fight with cats. Do not punish them, because they will pay you back at
any rate. Put a cat on your knees, look into its eyes, and try to persuade her to do what
you want. Any cat will understand that.” So I did that with Maniasha. All I said was:
“Dear Maniasha! I love you very much. You are my favourite cat and not for love or money
am I going to leave you. But this little kitten needs our help. He is your little brother.
Please, help me to look after him. I really need your support.” Actually, I didn’t
expect this thing to work. But great was my surprise when the next moment Mania jumped off
my legs, came up to Alex, and licked him on his nose.
My cats are still together now and they are great friends. They never
fight, but play and Maniasha teaches Alex some of her tricks. I am not afraid to leave
them on their own, and now when I come back home, the two are always at the door to meet
me. I strongly recommend anyone who has problems with pets to try this method of teaching
them. It will surely work.
By Kassy M.,
MCPU,
3rd year student
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