Welcome to Catstar’s Wednesday Cat! Every week we share stories from one of the cat-loving cat stars. This week we’re about Wes and his fiercely cute Russian blue, Raphael.
A friend of mine visited me the other day. Raphael met Raphael when he was a small chunk and said, “Well, he’s much more relaxed than when I first met!” Of course, he was referring to the darkness, the horrifying, dangerous, the royal period of Tyrannosaurus, the age of cat ownership. This was when a fierce tiny bundle of grey fur roamed the floor, even their sharp fangs and sharp claws sinking into the flesh of the way it discovered, bunny kicking furiously and challenging ecstasy. Certainly, it was a difficult time for visitors. When it’s hugged, ringing and calming, everyone loves a cute kitten. But for those unfamiliar in our lives, they probably didn’t fully understand that this calm moment was one side of a particularly powerful deal. It will be crushed as soon as Raffy is born from a peaceful sleep.
Of course, my friend is right. Now that Raphael has grown into himself, his gentle self-confidence has also developed. He is now a mature man about town. This old, clever, more elegant Raphael still shows an element of kitten-like behavior. He loves his bare ankles (not the bear’s ankles, this is a much more disastrous opportunity). He adores the hard biting after having too many loving embraces, and sometimes he can’t help bring out those nails when he really wants… separating his points.
But does that mean he is mean?
“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was a Victorian novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson. I hope that I don’t provide too many spoilers for the 100+ textbook. The story says it centers around a doctor who used serum to transform himself for his own demonic deeds, but before he knew it, he couldn’t control it. Recently, this hit me reading what most cat owners face every day!
When he was a kitten, Raphael’s evil deeds were naturally part of the learning process. He built boundaries and understood the meaning of living in this world. That’s why we always followed advice to stop him from hugging him when he acted.
But of course he is a cat. Even the best and most careful “training” is all you can do to smooth out the edges of a small house’s beast half-front (cute but cute).
Sometimes, when he was placed over me with a bloodthirsty, furious attack from the depths of my throat, I put out a small, unwilling Yelp, and flashed the appearance of pure sadness and regret across that fluffy little face.
At that moment, Raphael was actually Dr. Jekyll, and soon he used his serum to seed Mr. Hyde again.
Obviously, our cats are not mean. They can’t help it and can’t control it. Like Dr. Jekyll, they are powerless against the internal forces that will ultimately grab them, and they have to put Mr. Hyde in.
But it still hurts when they put him in. Not only physically (and physically painful, of course), but also emotionally. Every time we think it’s different, we’re sitting there longer than a regular whiplash, so we think, “Maybe not this time.” When those nails sink into our skin, I think, “No, I was wrong again.”
what about you? Does your cat sometimes struggle with Mr Hyde? Or deeper, do they mean?
This article features Wes and Raphael in Wednesday’s Cat of Cat Star series.
