Signs of Trouble Ahead
Signs of Trouble Ahead
By Vicki Totten
March 2020
Skipper has become a puzzle to me. His behavior began to change when a new feral cat began showing up across the street at the coffee shop. He became very skittish and would lash out and run away from us. He would sit in the windowsill at night on high alert, looking to see if “Walter” was invading his space – as he often was. We would find Walter on the front porch or on the side deck, or in the driveway in the mornings. Clearly he was invading Skipper’s space, and so Skipper felt a need to protect it. I get it. But, Walter has been living at the coffee shop for months now. There is a regular at the coffee shop who comes faithfully every morning and every night to feed Walter and the other longtime stray cat Gracie, who both hang out there. Now, Skipper and Gracie had gotten along great before Walter came along. Skipper would go over and hang out with Gracie – teaching her all kinds of things – like how you could hang out in the roof gutter. But Walter and Skipper just don’t get along. They have gotten into several fights, one necessitating a trip to the vet to treat a wound Skipper received from Walter.
So, I assumed because of this rivalry with Walter, Skipper had increasingly become like a feral cat himself. He was coming in only to eat or to sit in the windowsill for short periods of time. If I went to pet him he would recoil and then either swat at me or hiss at me. This was the same cat that used to sleep with me and rub up against me making the loudest happy purring sounds you have ever heard. Now it was as if he didn’t even know who I was. He had the same behavior with Stan. So, since Skipper had already decided he didn’t want anything more to do with us, Stan and I decided to adopt a kitten from the shelter. We also hoped that maybe the kitten would help bring back out Skipper’s loving side.
Well, we knew it would take some time for Skipper to adjust, and so at first we always kept them in separate rooms. Every time Skipper would spy Thelma in the other room through the glass door, he would snarl and swat at the door. When we released Thelma, Skipper would continue this hostile behavior toward Thelma. Even though Thelma would try her best to show Skipper she was not a threat, it didn’t seem to phase him. Thelma would get onto her back and scoot up closer and closer to Skipper, showing him that she wasn’t a threat. Skipper would just run away or hiss at her.
So, fast forward about three weeks, and since our goal is to keep Thelma an indoor only cat – unlike Skipper, who absolutely refused to become an indoor cat – as evidenced by torn up screens when we were living with him on the boat, and a few broken cat doors in Austin and then in Rockport. When he was still in Austin, when we had someone looking after him while we were away, we had the cat sitter not only lock the cat door at night (there were coyotes in our neighborhood, so we wanted to keep him in at night), but also move the piece of furniture that was next to the cat door in front of the cat door.
So, now that we are in Rockport and have this kitten who has figured out how to go out the door during the day if we leave the interior unlocked, we lock it from the inside, but leave the exterior unlocked, so Skipper can come in. Of course, since Skipper can’t then go back out either, he has taken to coming into the bedroom and meowing until someone wakes up and lets him out. This was happening several times every single night. So because of this, I decided last night that since Thelma had never tried to go out at night and in fact seems a bit freaked out by the dark, that I would unlock the inside as well as the outside lock on the cat door.
Also, yesterday, even though we have been quarantened for three weeks because of the covid 19 pandemic, I decided I really needed to take both cats to the vet. Both of them had been scratching a lot, even though they are both on flea medicine. I was afraid that maybe Skipper had some underlying health problem that had caused his changed behavior -maybe an absessed tooth or some other kind of illness that we couldn’t see. The doctor said that allergies had been hitting half the animals in town really badly, and after a thorough exam, suggested giving them each a steroid shot to see if that relieved the itching. He added that it might also resolve Skipper’s changed behavior, since he said cats can be really neurotic when they feel bad, and they don’t really realize that is why they are lashing out.
So this morning I was feeling really hopeful when Skipper showed up in my bedroom and even came to the foot of my bed when I called him. I realized he had been out in the rain, and so got a towel to dry him off, and he (for the most part) let me do so. Afterward, he stood while I petted him and didn’t swat at me, but instead began purring, as he had always done in the past. I thought, this is wonderful, now Skipper can start coming back in the house (we had set him up in my husband’s studio space) and will once again be the sweet cat he had always been.
Well, it turns out my hopes for what was happening didn’t really match the reality. Skipper stayed in the bedroom for quite a while, until I decided I needed to get up and make coffee. Usually when I walk into the living room, Thelma runs out to greet me. But when I called out, she was nowhere to be found. Worried, I opened the side door where the cat door is and called to her. I heard this pitiful meowing from nearby and in runs this soaking wet Thelma still crying as she came through the open door. Apparently once she figured out how to get out the door, she couldn’t figure out how to get back in. And then it hit me. Skipper was being so nice because he knew Thelma was outside. What a stinker! A really smart stinker, but still a stinker!
In hindsight, I should not have let the vet’s theory that Skipper just had allergies convince me that he was going to be alright. I don’t know if it would have made a difference to the eventual outcome of Skipper’s changed behavior – but it’s hard to not entertain some “what ifs.” The real reason for his changed behavior was finally discovered months later.