Whilst we’ve all been at home I’ve been taking the chance to teach baby Angelin some of my hunting and jumping skills. I was lucky enough to learn these early on in my life when I was on the streets and had my street family around to teach me. Angelin was so young when she was found that she didn’t get to learn these skills before she came into our family so it’s my job to teach her. You might wonder how a blind cat teaches another blind can but we do it all through play and fun. I lead by example and Angelin copies me in what I’d do. She can’t see me but she can hear what I do and feel how I move when we are playing. Sometimes we all play together and sometimes separately, occasionally we all play in the kitchen each with different toys at the same time, this can be a bit chaotic and with two blind cats can often lead to bumping, barging and crashing but we don’t mind, it’s all good practice at honing our skills.
I get daddy to join in too, he uses the wand or feather toy and waggles it around for Angelin to chase, she can follow the sound of the toy across the floor and can run after it our crouch down and then pounce in one big leap. Following the toy is easier to start with so we do this more often so she can learn to follow noise and then twist and turn with it as the toy moves. This is called ‘the chase’ in the wild.
Then we move onto the pouncing which is a bit harder. You hear the toy moving around and instead of just running after it you go and hide, behind the sofa, kitchen cupboard or another toy, waiting, watching and listening. Patience has to be taught to learn to listen for each tiny movement, establishing if there’s a pattern, then coiling up like a spring, weight on the back paws, front paws ready to strike, then wiggle bottom to warm up the big spring muscles, then pounce and strike. Victory is mine. If you don’t learn to be patient enough then you pounce too soon and the prey isn’t in the right place and it gets away and all that effort of pouncing is wasted and you have to start all over again.
I’m also teaching her to jump, jumping is great fun, it feels like you’re flying and weightless for a brief second before you land back down again! Being good as jumping helps to catch insects as they zoom around overhead, it helps build those big leg muscles which help make us big and strong plus they also help when doing one of my most favourite things, tree climbing.
Maybe one day Angelin will be like me and her skills will be good enough for her to hunt real pray outside like I do. She just needs to practice a bit more, hunting outside you need to be really patient. You can use the skills from the indoor playtime but there’s things that can’t be taught by just playing. When you’re a hungry street cat you have to learn these real life skills, you’re driven by hunger and the need to eat to survive. A failed hunt is wasted energy and leads to being even hungrier than you were before so you’ve gotta get it right. You need to be able to stand still crouched, ready to go at a split seconds notice when the timing is perfectly right. You must stay perfectly still no matter how uncomfortable you are at the point you stopped. You can’t move a muscle, not even a little twitch as any movement might give your position away, a muscle movement might cause a twig to snap or a leaf to rustle. You must regulate your breathing and control any instincts to just rush in and attack. Every sense is heightened, touch (whiskers and paws), smell and hearing, all working together, I can pinpoint exactly where my prey is, how high, how far away, what it’s doing and how it’s moving. Instead of seeing with my eyes I see with my other senses painting a picture of what lies before me.
Then, when there’s an opportunity I edge forwards, one step at a time, creeping closer and closer, bit by bit, feeling my way quietly. Front paw forwards, then back paw into the space left by the front, each one carefully and skilfully placed, gradually and slowly moving deeper and deeper into the bush and closer and closer to my prey. Then, as soon as I know I’m within striking distance I make my move, every muscle that was coiled in readiness reacts, I sprint forwards, as fast as lightning, so fast my prey doesn’t stand a chance, I’m just a couple of steps away, the prey is almost mine, I leap to catch it, paws outstretched and then com3 to a sudden undignified stop in mid air, landing back on the ground empty pawed – mummy has locked the lead!
I was so engrossed in the hunt that I had completely forgotten she was there and that I was out on walkies! Mummy likes birds and not in the same way as I do as something as a snack. She won’t let me catch the birds as she says we should all live together in harmony, mummy and daddy feed us as much food as we want but they also know that as a cat I have hunting instincts which should be embraced as they are part of who I am. We then finish off our walkies and head in for dinner, all that hunting makes me really hungry.
Jenny’s Story 