One of the best and funniest things about introducing our kittens (they’re three years old) to new cats is the bad influence of those cats. They absolutely learn by watching other cats doing things, especially when those things get Human Results.
The late great Gideon, the kittens’ father (their actual biological dad from the cat colony), taught them how to meow for breakfast. Before that they only knew how to do pitiful little honks. Gideon taught them to meow like they were being put to death.
Now I’ve just seen both of them watching Tibbs, their brand new granddad (no actual relation, he’s just very old) hop up onto the kitchen bench from the kitchen table (because his arthritis won’t let him jump onto the bench the normal way) and then step up onto the microwave (a frontier they haven’t figured out themselves) to get past the sink… and eat pork residue out of last night’s wok. Grandpa then followed it up with trying to drink the dishwater until I gave him a water dish on the counter. And then he tried to climb into my cereal bowl until I let him have the last bit of my milk even though we are a “don’t let cats have milk” household. And the whole time I’m just watching them sitting there and taking notes from punk anarchist grandpa
I know november 5 is a big day on tumblr, but to me, it's a big day for an entirely different reason: today is the first anniversairy of the day we brought home our cat, Pan!
He was basically a stray, and he was very shy for a while:
But now, after a year, he sleeps in our beds, always comes to check what's on the menu if anyone is eating, lets us pet him and pick him up and generally bother him, and overall became a nice and friendly cat:
Welcome, dear Pan! I hope you enjoyed your first year with us! 💙🤍