Can this friendship be saved?
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Thong returns home but total acceptance is going to take time
A TRAVELLER finally returns home after wandering the world for a long, long time. Friends and family are happy to see him, but nonetheless sense that he’s not who he was before he left.
Over this long time, they have changed too.
They greet him happily but with restraint, waiting to see just how he’s changed and how he’ll adapt to the changes that have occurred while he was gone.
He himself senses the restraint, but he knows that he’s home and that it’s now time to reclaim his rightful place.
Yes, he’s back – Thong the accident-prone soi cat who’s spent around a month at the vet’s recovering from a bad infection, the result of a cat fight. Those terrible holes on his chest, where the vet had to dig out dead tissue, are completely healed, and he certainly looks better.
It’s not been all sweetness and light, though. As I feared, while Thong was at the clinic, the rest of the mini-zoo waited a few days and then slowly began claiming his territory.
Even his best friend soi-cat Thep seemed to be taking over pieces of what used to belong to him.
Now, when Thong jumps out of his carrier in the house, Thep is there, but instead of running over and greeting him, the orange boy simply stays where he is, watching Thong carefully.
The only one to greet him (besides me) is Wan-Wan, the poodle pup and Cat-Protector. She runs over to him, kissing him on the nose, pushing gently against his side.
Thong, though, doesn’t spend much time with his admirer. He runs up the stairs all the way to the top floor, screaming his little heart out. “I’m home,” I think he says.
That night, while Thong lies on the sofa, Thep finally comes over and starts grooming him gently on the face.
I watch carefully. Usually, it is the dominant cat who does the grooming. If Thong doesn’t accept the dominance, he’ll hiss and strike out with a paw. If he’s happy with the way things are, he’ll relax.
In fact, he does neither. He jumps down to the floor and moves away.
In this way, I know that the two boys, once such good friends, are not yet comfortable with each other.
For the next few days, the boys have general disagreements, more noise than physical combat.
Thong also has to deal with another cat – Wild Child Manohra. She once accepted Thong as one of her “gang”, but now, behaving more like a naughty kitten than a fully-grown adult, she yells at him lot whenever she sees him, but when Thong simply lies down peaceably and ignores her, she stops.
Poor Thep is not so brave. He’d like to continue what he’s been doing during Thong’s absence, such as sleeping on my bed at night, but now, Thong won’t let him, chasing him away whenever the poor cat comes near.
Thep really isn’t a fighter. As Thong becomes more and more aggressive, he first removes himself to another floor, then, a few days later, he stops trying to be an inside cat and begins roaming the soi again, coming inside only to eat and have a quick cat-nap.
At first, Thong stays inside, taking naps on every floor. He even greets Thep occasionally. Then, as Thep becomes more of an outside cat, Thong begins to join him, slowly returning to his own outside habits.
Maybe the two boys are instinctively returning to the life on the soi they led together before they discovered my home, their cat hotel. Going back to basics is a good way to renew a friendship, don’t you think?
Are cats complex creatures, or what?
