These are Santino's siblings and cousins, and baby Santino is somewhere in the happy pile. The photo was taken by Virginia Torch, the original Mama of all. (How I wish I could see how they have grown! Are they as gorgeous as Santino?)
I have wanted to do another post about nature vs. nurture.....but, unfortunately...did not note my ideas. I do think that whatever is generally said about cats does not hold true of the breeds. They do not have independent natures, and, I believe, want very much to please us. (Not Rudy!) They are sensitive and get their feelings hurt easily. I am hoping that Virginia will add a lot of her own observations to this.
Another subject in which I am very interested is why cats who are obsessive compulsive by nature are considered "normal", whereas obsessive compulsive behavior in humans is reason for therapy and/or medication. What else are cats getting away with? :-) Shouldn't we cut people just as much slack? Or, is the key element "nature"? Humans are not obsessive compulsive by nature.
Hi Chaska:
ReplyDeleteI love that picture! They all grew up to be as beautiful as Santino in their own special way!
I think a lot of what is said about cats is based on kittens who have not been handled when they are tiny and thus grow into cats who are somewhat suspicious of humans and perhaps not quite as friendly as they would have been had they been raised under foot. And of course it does vary by breed! We made it a point to handle the kittens right from day one to get them used to human smells and touch. Generally our Mama cats allowed this especially since we were usually there during the birthing process. So right from the beginning our kittens were being raised with humans around and I think this made a huge difference since most (not all)of the kittens have grown up to be very loving and affectionate! But each cat is different and I still have one who dives under the bed when she sees me or my husband. Needless to say she will remain with us since she would be hard to place. Besides she's Star's latest daughter and they still hang together.
I agree with the sensitivity part. The orientals are very smart and they do like to test the limit so when they go flying about the house and knock over stuff (like my Chinese lamp - twice within one hour!) and we yell at them - they look at you with a wounded look.. like "what, what did I do?? I was just having fun Ma!"
I think we allow our cats to get away with so much because they crawl into our laps and purr away. Perhaps if humans learned to purr we could get away with a lot too!
Virginia
Regarding diving under the bed. Santino knows me by sound. His eyesight seems to be very poor. If I am walking faster than usual, or wearing unfamiliar shoes, he can be looking straight at me and still dive under the bed. Frequently I have to call out..."Santino, it's ME!" He does freak rather easily. I blame it on the air travel.
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