Cepha...C fa....(it means C for cat)...say it fast and it makes sense, honestly! I think we believed we were being clever when we thought up his name, but maybe not? He was definitely one laid back cat dude. He was a beautiful cream colour that I have never seen before, or since, and he was graceful and languid in his movements. In fact Cepha had a way of staring at the other cats, and even his humans, like he was looking down on them. A little like the character Lord Snooty, just so you get the idea. His nose would point in the air and he would fix you with his green eyes and boy did you feel inferior. Basically he went about his life in a very chilled out way and it took a lot to annoy him. Jonesy, of course, wanted to be 'boss cat' and Cepha was another male, albeit a pretty laid back male. You will know, from past posts, that Jonesy ordered the girl cats about. He also ordered Tank about, but he never quite could order Cepha about. For a while Cepha would tolerate Jonesy's growls, and eye balling, and general stroppy 'I want to sit right where you are sitting' moments, and then he would react like lightening. We nicknamed him 'Cepha big paws' in the end (sounds like a song title?) because he would sit, and sit, and sit, staring at Jonesy's pouncing, and boss posing, and then he would simply whack him two or three times round the head really fast, with his paw. Jonesy would be left dazed, literally shaking his head, and would slouch off in disgust. Cepha never stood up to do the paw whacks, but simply stayed sitting, and afterwards he would just carry on either washing himself, or whatever he was doing. Jonesy never learned to leave Cepha alone, and would always push the boundaries, and Cepha would whack him fast every single time!!
As I said, the stormy weather today reminded me of Cepha, because he would have been sat on the lawn in the back garden right at the height of it all. Most sensible cats stay out of the wind and rain......the girls certainly stay indoors unless it is full blown sunshine, Tank preferred an easy life which did not involve getting wet, and until the last few months of his life, Jonesy would sprint back home doing 90 miles an hour if it even started to spit with rain. Cepha seemed to love the rain. He would deliberately go outside as bad weather approached. Even if it was thundering and lightening we would have to coax him to come back indoors. He would sit there, getting wetter and wetter, and yet looking for all the world like he was in his element. We would have to actually carry him indoors quite often, although he never protested at us doing that, and rub him dry with towels. As I said, Jonesy behaved in a similar manner as he became ill. He would sit outside under a bush or a table and watch the rain, keeping dry but still in the middle of it all. Obviously the last few weeks of his life he preferred to stay close to home and keep warm in the sun, or indoors, but looking back his behaviour was similar to Cepha's. You see Cepha suffered from epilepsy, which became worse and worse as he got older. In the beginning he would simply howl as the 'episode' started and dribble and hide in a corner. It was distressing for us to watch as nothing would help. We would simply stay close and try to murmur words of comfort. As he got older his fits made his whole body shake as he collapsed, and they became more distressing. The vets were unable to help, and told us that probably we would have to make a decision to have him put down eventually. It was a constant worry to us that Cepha would one day have a major fit outside away from us, and would die, and we would not be with him. In the end, though, and very sadly, one day he began to fit and would not stop.....we raced him to the vets but he died there. We were with him right at the end, and for that we are grateful, but it was a very upsetting time. I often wonder if Cepha found the air in a storm somehow more comfortable, especially when he was feeling ill, and that is why he stayed outside? Maybe Jonesy felt that too? I suppose we will never know, but it would be interesting to hear if anyone else's cat behaved the same as Cepha and Jonesy?
I know most people only have the one cat, but if you have two,three or even four....That's when the fun starts...!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has four cats, and the 'tails' l've heard about them...(No pun intended).
When l moved into my present home, in 1978, l was married, and my daughter was two. A couple of doors away, there was a cat, Candy, who decided to move in. And, in fact had kittens in our bedroom, one of which we kept and called Darlinga, after a racehorse, a friend of mine owned. She in turn had three kittens, of which one survived. Nekema. Then of course the kids brought Mufty to the door, and we finished up with three. A couple of years later, my marriage split up, l got custody of my daughter, it was then we really became a great happy family, me, my daughter, and three puddy-tatts.....! :)
And...Every one of those cats, and even all the others l've known, had there own personalities.....! As ALL cats do...!
Bless them.....Love them to bits.....! :0).