Something very strange happened, (or rather, did not happen) today.
Gerald did not make his morning wake-up-please-feed-us call.
When I opened the front door to feed the Porch Cats, only Creamy was there. Gerald and Misty were not around.
Oh no, what happened to Gerald and Misty? They never miss breakfast.
So I called for both. No one came.
Oh no, no, no, no….
In any case, I started feeding Creamy first. He did not eat.
And I continued calling for Gerald and Misty.
Finally, to my relief, Gerald came but he looked very afraid. He was followed by Misty.
I offered some food to Gerald but he was too afraid to eat. He didn’t even dare approach the usual feeding area.
Then I realised why.
Gerald was terrified of….Creamy.
Creamy was posturing, forbidding Gerald from going to the feeding place.
But I know Gerald is always very hungry in the morning, so I carried him and took him into the house.
But even inside the house, Gerald was still too afraid to eat.
Either he was still afraid or he was more interested in exploring the house. Tabs was following him around.
So, that didn’t work either. Now, how to make Gerald less afraid so that he would eat.
Misty also was too frightened of Creamy to eat.
Creamy was the monster today. I think perhaps it is a case of the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Misty had been bullying Creamy for months now. Maybe Creamy decided to fight back today, in full force.
But even when Misty bullies him, Creamy still ate his food.
Today, I don’t know what Creamy did, but both Gerald and Misty were terrified of him. So scared that they didn’t even dare to eat. Again, I am reminded by what a senior vet told me a long time ago. He said cats can be so frightened that they would rather starve to death than eat and usually it is due to territorial issues. Fear is such an overpowering emotion that even hunger cannot overcome it. So if people were to tell you, “Don’t worry, when they are hungry enough, they will eat.”, it isn’t necessarily true for cats. For humans, yes. But not for cats.
With Gerald and Misty both inside the house now (but not eating), Creamy also tried to come in. But no, I didn’t allow him to.
Finally, Misty decided to take matters into her own hands/paws. She went out and confronted Creamy but not in a war cry fight. In her own quiet way.
Creamy went under the car. Misty followed closely.
Gerald finally came out to eat. Phew…
Misty then walked out of the gate and sat there while Gerald continued eating, but still looking over his shoulders. Creamy was still under the car.
Creamy must have got the message, so he walked out of the gate and crossed the road.
Misty was still on guard for Gerald. She still hadn’t eaten yet. So I finally called her in. She walked in slowly.
And she ate.
Our hero of the day, Ms Misty!!!
Thank you for looking after Gerald, Misty!
Even we humans could not have done anything to deescalate the issue. It was clearly a cat issue and only cats could do something about it, using cat methodology!