Wulfenite

Our household includes three orange tabby cats. Wulfenite is going on three years old, has medium length fur, is overweight and underactive. He is a confused cat, rarely having the instincts of a cat, often chasing (or hiding from ) shadows.

I believe his confused state of mind occurred when he was about five months old (although perhaps he was on the verge of confusion before this event). Wulfenite and his brother Teaky were rescued by our family from a household of non-cat lovers. They were dog people, but not cat and dog people, they just happened to tolerate a cat - Wulfenite's and Teaky's mother. So, the batch of kittens had been confined to an upstairs bedroom and a small cat-apartment. There had been no encouragement to go out to explore the rest of that house and little interaction with most of the people in the house. When we took the two cats, the former owners were both happy to have the kittens off their hands, but reluctant to give us wulfenite - it was clear to them that something might be wrong with him (in his psychological development). However, we always get cats in pairs and didn't want Teaky to be lonely, so we took the pair of them.

Teaky took good care of his brother. Wulfenite didn't speak (or meow), and mostly hid. But, Teaky spoke up for the both of them. The two kittens were both a little shy of exploring and even Teaky didn't see our entire house for about a week - even though we gave them free-reign. Wulfenite was even more timid of exploring than Teaky, but also managed to wander enough to find every closet or piece of furniture that he might be able to hide in.

One May evening, a couple of months after we got these two cats, the front door to our house must not have been closed tightly or locked before we all went to bed for the night. At this point, Wulfenite and Teaky had ventured out into the backyard - under our watchful eyes - a few times, but had never been out at night and had never been in the front yard. During a wind-storm, the front door must have blown open during the night and the cats must have gone out. Randy found the front door open and both cats gone at about 5 in the morning. Later, we found Wulfenite hiding in a closet, but extremely skittish and agitated - more so than before. We never saw Teaky again. We think Wulfenite knows what happened to Teaky, but he's not telling.

Ever since then, without Teaky to take care of him Wulfenite has become even more un-cat-like. He doesn't hunt, he doesn't like meat or other cat treats, he does like styrofoam packing peanuts, but I don't think they are good for his digestion. Wulfenite runs and hides often, even from the other members of the household - he doesn't just hide from strangers as many cats do. Wulfenite did once chase a rat in the backyard, but that was about a year ago - I think maybe some cat-like instinct must have kicked in for a moment. Also, Wulfenite does occasionally speak now - not like a cat, but he sort of makes a squeaking, croaking sound, so I think he has learned to make himself heard since he no longer has Teaky to meow for him. Sometimes, for very brief moments, Wulfenite has even been known to play with our other two cats. I'll have to write about them sometime - because that is a whole different story.