A Case of Mistaken Identity

I brought home two kittens back in 1989. Littermates. Sisters. I wanted them to be company for each other. I wanted them to be best friends, to groom each other and sleep in a little heap. As it turned out, they have barely tolerated each other through the years, but at least it has given them something to do all day. They have always been extremely jealous of each other. In their kitten days, this often manifested itself as a wholesale cat fight in my bed once we all settled down for the night to sleep.

I asked one of my cat savvy friends at work what to do about the turmoil in my house, and her advice was to play with the cats vigorously every night right before we went to bed. That started a ritual of wild games each night for many years, my cats and I, charging about the house from one end to the other, in high spirits, until we all fell into bed, exhausted and ready to sleep. My friend's suggestion was a good one.

In truth, Cindy never really got into the games too much. She is much too prim and proper, and probably too smart for her own good. Bonnie, on the other hand, loved to stalk and be stalked. One of her favorite "hiding" places was between the tub and the shower curtain in the upstairs bathroom. I would walk into the bathroom and see her big grey cat butt sticking out from under the shower curtain draped on the outside of the tub. I would walk over, give her fuzzy butt a little nudge with my toe, and she would take a swipe at me. I'd give her another nudge, she'd take another swipe, and then she'd take off for another round of tag through the house.

So, one evening, when I walked into the bathroom and saw a cat butt sticking out from under the curtain, I thought nothing of walking over and giving it a nudge with my foot. Except this time, the cat came whirling out of the curtain, ran into the hall, and turned and looked at me piercingly with a gaze full of shock and indignation. "You kicked me!! I can't believe you kicked me!" her eyes said. It was Cindy, not Bonnie. I was too taken aback by the genuine hurt in her eyes to laugh.

It's a funny memory, now, but bittersweet.