I felt kinda bad about it, but Cleo had to learn a lesson the hard way earlier this evening.
We see a lot of cats around our neighborhood when we’re out walking, typically just sitting in driveways, sometimes on top of or underneath a random car here and there.
This drives Cleo crazy because pretty much anything she sees on four legs is a potential playmate in her eyes, and so she doesn’t understand why I don’t let her get closer when she spots a furry creature off in the distance and starts trying to dislocate my arm by means of the leash that connects the two of us.
Tonight we passed a fat, white cat just sitting right in the middle of the sidewalk, and I didn’t really see it enough in advance to walk around or over to the other side of the street.
Also, it should probably be noted that I really hate cats and knowing how they usually spook pretty easily, occasionally I’ve been known to take pleasure in watching them sprint back into the house where they belong when I “accidentally” let Cleo get close enough to unleash her enthusiasm upon them.
That didn’t happen this time, though.
Instead, the cat held its ground and got particularly defensive, which I think just confused her even more.
“If you don’t run away, then you must want to play with me!!!”
She circled him, and sniffed, and then eventually went in for a closer look…
…and jumped right back just in time to avoid a claw right across her nose!
It took her two or three times before she decided that she didn’t want to play with kitty anymore. Again, I felt kinda bad about it, though luckily she never actually got caught hard enough to draw blood or anything. But she just turned one year-old yesterday, so I figured she’s gotta learn sometime.
As we walked away, she jumped up on me and had the most confused look in her eyes, like, “Why was that kitty so mean??? Why didn’t it want to play with me???”
Sure enough, a few miles later we came across another cat right in the middle of the sidewalk, and of course, Cleo had already forgiven and forgotten the last bitchy kitty…