The Dynamic Duo

I witnessed something interesting yesterday in the animal kingdom. I was involved in one of my favorite activities; one that I indulge in way too seldom: reading and dozing outdoors in my hammock. I lay there in twilight slumber having just lain my novel aside and threads of book-plot were winding through nascent dreams. ( Wow, what a cool sentence!) Anyway, I was suddenly brought wide awake by the loud, insistent howling of a cat. We have about 15-20 outdoor cats (including all the kittens), but there was no mistaking that yowl; it was Tree Cat.
Tree Cat is a very strange feline; he is a gray&white, short, stocky tomcat with only half a tail and a very wide head. When he first arrived about 5 years ago, he was afraid of everything and took up residence in one of the trees in our yard and refused to come down. We even put a platform up there with food and water for him. He did EVERYTHING from that tree, as Jim found out to his dismay when he happened to walk under it when Tree Cat was…......um…......shall we say “taking a leak”? Several times a day, Sparky and/or Toby, neutered house tomcats, would climb the tree to intimidate and beat up on the scaredy-cat. Sometimes we had to spray them with the hose to stop the fights.
Well, I don’t know what did it, but about 2 years ago, we realized that Tree Cat was more and more coming “out”. Of the tree, that is. When he spotted us, he would quickly climb up again and meow pitifully as if to say “I’m scared. Feed me up here.” But we wouldn’t fall for that old trick more than 50 times or so, so he is now an ordinary all terrain cat. The name, however, stuck.
When he got his courage, he also became…...um…...more assertive with the “ladies.” I know that many of these kittens call him “Dad”. And so he came strolling into the yard, emitting that distinctive plaintive yowl. Immediately, one of the little mother cats, left her babies and ran to meet him. She had to follow him for a while as he scurried aimlessly about, but finally he settled on the steps next to the house, and she rubbed heads with him and proceeded to lick his head. He gave her a few licks back, but seemed to mostly take it as his due. One of the kittens followed its mom, and curiously sniffed Tree Cat, and got his little ears boxed by his (most likely) grouchy Dad. The mother cat totally ignored her little offspring. She seemed totally aborbed in ministering to ugly, whiny TreeCat.
It’s always a temptation to indulge in a little anthropomorphism, but it looked for all the world to me like a potentate calling for his “harem” and telling the annoying kid to get lost. And she seemed like the downtrodden woman who falls for the guys who are “no good”. You know, like that song from Showboat “Can’t help Loving That Man of Mine…Tell me he’s lazy, tell me’s slow, tell me I’m crazy maybe I know”.....Hmm….........wonder if that will be part of my dream tonight?

UltraMom