Some people would think that one blind cat was enough to cope with but not my mummy and daddy, they went for double trouble when they adopted my blind little sister Angelin.
According to mummy and daddy watching two blind cats play fighting and running around can be very entertaining. Normally I’m pretty good at knowing where things are, as you all know my other senses are finely homed and I can hear any little noise no matter how quiet. I can smell any living creature no matter how small and pinpoint exactly where it is. Sometimes though I just wanna have fun and when that happens I let myself relax a bit. Play is all about having fun not being serious and hunting for something to eat – you play because you can and because you want to. When I’m playing I don’t have to worry about something attacking me to harm me, just one of my siblings attacking me because they want to play. Gone are the days when I had to worry about being attacked, that instinct takes a while for me to let go of though so for me playing with others isn’t something that comes naturally, I’m normally still on edge wondering what is going to happen. Sometimes though when I fully relax and start to play we actually have fun and although cats playing can sometimes look like fighting there’s no hate or anger behind the paws and teeth.
Angelin and I are both ex street cats and so we are quite rough players, I started off being gentle with her and taking it a bit easy on her as she was very little but over time she’s become a strong, determined little fighter and she’s getting more accurate with her pounces and punches. She’s also a dirty fighter and you often end up with a bum in your face or having your head sat on. She gets so excited she gets a big fuzzy tail and all the hairs on her back stand up, we call this her fighting ridge. When her fighting ridge is up she’s turned into a big fearsome fighting cat rather than a slightly out of control punk kitten according to mummy and daddy.
As my instincts relax and we play my aim gets a little less accurate and sometimes even I lose track of where Angelin is and take a swipe only to find thin air! This is quite embarrassing for a seasoned hunting cat like me so of course I pretend that’s what I meant to do just to take it easy on Angelin and give her a chance.
Blind cats are generally very quiet cats as our hearing rather than sight is the first detection of predators so we make very little noise when walking around just so we can hear the background noises. Quite often mummy or daddy will turn around and then I am sitting behind them waiting to play and they are surprised that I’m there “oh how did you get there Jenny!” They say “ I think you must be a secret stealth ninja!” We make very little noise when we’re fighting too and this seems to be what mummy and daddy find funny about watching us. There isn’t a lot of running around or chasing, like I do with Peppar but it’s more on the spot rolling around and wrestling and pouncing. Daddy and mummy say it’s like watching a silent movie or shadow boxers. The only noise you really hear is the gentle thud of a paw hitting a body or me hissing at Angelin coz shes fighting dirty and we’re family and should fight a fair fight!
Before Angelin came along I used to fight with Peppar and you would think that he had an advantage over me because he can see but mummy explained something to me one day. Peppar came from a pet shop, he was a very, very scared kitten, he had been living in a cage there, there were about 6 cages all with either two or three kittens in and when mummy went into the shop she looked around and all the kittens were coming to say hello to her with their tiny paws and little meows, except one. Peppar was in a cage with his sister at the top of the cage pile, he was so scared he couldn’t bring himself to come and say hello to mummy and sat cowering at the back. Mummy immediately spotted him and thought he needed to be taken home and away from he pet shop, she bought him then and there. The people who owned the pet shop said that he had an eye infection and gave mummy some cream to continue the treatment, which she did. Luckily for Peppar the infection cleared up and he was fine but ever since then whenever he fought or played with his big sisters he would close his eyes to fight. This means that when I came along we were an excellent fighting partnership as he closes his eyes when he is play fighting with me! Isn’t it funny how I managed to find a home with probably the only sighted cat who fights blind like me 😺
Sometimes, I get my own back on Angelin’s dirty street fighting by ‘accidentally’ sitting on her head when I’m getting down off somewhere like the cat perch and Angelin is below me. Mummy says there’s a human saying ‘what comes around goes around’ and this seems very appropriate for Angelin’s naughty fighting technique. I remain top cat, Angelin gets put back in her place and I get the last meow 😸.
Jenny’s Story 