Rescue of Stray Cats: A Nudnick is a Nudnick
Posted: Wednesday, September 07, 2011
by Paul Schroeder
alien / demonic attachment
My two year old rescue cat who was abandoned under a woodpile by his mother when he was five weeks old, cared for and weaned by me with love, is now a 'lid off the Id', all black nightmare.
He was difficult from the very beginning; it took us hours to unpack and unload that large stack of woodpile, behind a neighbor's shed, to locate him in pouring rain as he had, unseen, been heard for hours to cry and cry and cry..
Now, in his second year of life under my roof, as a fifteen pound feline, he has fully earned his name, Nudnick.
(Nudnick, is Yiddish/ Russian, for an annoying, boring, persisting and irritating pain in the derriere, personality. )
He is presently tall and large boned, an enormous pure alpha male with a huge square head who affectionately and jealously loves our family, but he hates my other cat, who clearly hates him back.
Squeaky, my other cat, is the oldest rescue cat ever, feeble, senile, on antibiotics, an old twenty-two year old purring shriveled coat of fur with glazed over eyes.
When Nudnick sees Squeaky getting any affection, consumed with jealousy,-(perhaps he has core abandonment issues), he seems compelled to jump on her and to bite her!
You can see his eyes grow large with pain, whenever he sees that she is being cared for.
Because of his jealousy, Nudnick tortures her.
She walked into my living room from my back garden seven years ago, and rolled around on the floor in pleasure and then walked over to us and sat in our laps to thank us.
Now, she's a twenty-two year old, frail, striped tabby, shriveled with age; since her voice could muster only high pitched chirps, I named her, Squeakie.
She had wandered away from her long previous life.
She had also wandered into our kitchen and hearts; she was twelve to fourteen years old, said the vet, and she was starved and flea-bitten, without any voice, teeth or claws.
Nudnick tackles and torpedoes her mercilessly, whenever she tries to move from
her bed to the litter box, and he makes her transit anywhere, a hellish experience.
I had even unsuccessfully tried to cage him for periods, whenever we were out and about, to insure her safety.
She, his mother, the 'Queen', may well have stood back, purposefully, for hours while he wailed alone in a pouring rain under a woodpile, knowing full well that he was an astonishing pain in the derriere and that I, always available with food, would eventually move in to fill that feline vacuum.
My life was certainly wrecked for quite a while by Nudnick; I had to buy a gorilla cage for the basement to incarcerate his litter box, toys, and him, when we went out, just to protect weak, senile old Squeakie from Alpha male alleycat assaults.......
It has been an unpeaceful, dreadful old age retirement for her, now
“One cat just leads to another
(Ernest Hemingway)”
I have admonished Nudnick tens of thousands of times, but it appears that he is a total feline nudnick!
Once a nudnick, always a nudnick.
He also exhibits his nudnicky nature when he tries to steal my $2000 leather recliner chair from under me, when I am comfortably perched within it.
First, he jumps up and gets behind me, on the chair and tries to physically nudge and push me off!
When that fails, he leaves the room and knocks something loudly to the floor in an adjacent room to get me up to investigate and to get me up out of my chair.
Or, leaving the room, he will cry repeatedly, from a nearby room, as he did when he was a tiny kitten, plaintively.
When I am halfway there, he runs in at full tilt, or slowly swaggers in, in cat smugness, steals my chair, supplants me, and stretches out in the imparted warmth where my body used to be.
One can see some logical deviousness in his methods ; he has worked this out in his little mind.
I have never before raised a cat, from a kitten, only to see a Nudnick!
I am sure that he, alone, has given me more trouble than any collection, ensemble of cats I have ever had to rescue.
cat rules:
'
- Always give generously. A small bird or rodent left on the bed tells them, I care.
- Climb your way to the top. That's why the drapes are there.
- Curiosity never killed anything except maybe a few hours.
- Find your place in the sun. Especially if it happens to be on that nice pile of warm, clean laundry.
- If you're not receiving enough attention, try knocking over several expensive antique lamps.
- Life is hard, then you nap.
- Make your mark in the world. Or at least spray in each corner.
- Never sleep alone when you can sleep on someone's face.'
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Top-level comments on this article: (8 total)He may be a Nudnick, but he's beautiful. (Although in this picture he looks like he's ready to pounce.) Poor Squeaky. Your cat rules are priceless Paul. Does he show his affection often? Because a dead rodent or bird anywhere, would tend to freak me out just a little. And as for your $2,000 leather recliner, I think I'd fight you for it too!Please log in to respond to this comment.He bangs heads with me, a greeting gesture of felines, reserved just for family..Please log in to respond to this comment.Although I cannot scale trees with my bare feet, I would surely relinquish my chair, to you..Please log in to respond to this comment.That would do nicely. :)
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Ohh, Paul, you've captured the essence of Catdom rules and pecking order here. I love this piece. Have you tried a water squirter (plant mister set on long range) Our youngest is a biter of other cats too and the squirter fixes him when time out just made us wish for ear plugs.
This one is at the top of my list for you and its company is the Grandma piece!
You grabbed it all here. Nudnick is black? Squeaky is tabby? the photo cannot be the 21 year old?
THANKS!Please log in to respond to this comment.You surely prefer human interest tales to paranormal tales; the record is duly noted.
I avoid a cat 'mister' as I do not want a negative relationship with Nudnick; he'd surely quickly deduce that I was the squirter....
Nudnick is all black; squeaky, years ago is featured, herePlease log in to respond to this comment.
Cats and I understand each other- they leave me alone and I leave them alone.....I'm more curious about what looks like a little stuffed tiger- Nice warm article-Please log in to respond to this comment.I am sometimes a nice, warm individual.Please log in to respond to this comment.Cats rule, dogs drool.....Please log in to respond to this comment.
I am convinced that cats originally perceived, (if they perceive) that they have an instrinsic mousing value. But since then they have realized that we have no way of "making them mouse", and therefore they have complete and utter freedom, and we have no recourse. Love and Tolerance become our only curatives. Great article.Please log in to respond to this comment.Nudnick is lightning fast but bugs, mice and birds scare him silly.
His role as footwarmer may define him, better.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Pretty cat! Is this Squeaky? Certainly she's not 21 on this pix - if she is really old here, then I will try to get out of you the secret to your incredible longevity for the cat and your successes. Nudnick is putting all his efforts into torturing, as only cats are able to concoct, the lesser (in his mind) cat. He knows he's big and bad and beautiful and doesn't he know it. Your story is fun and utterly fabulous. Love the Cat Rules!Please log in to respond to this comment.You're 'fun and fabulous', as well, to me!Please log in to respond to this comment.It'd be cool to see a pix of Nudnick tooPlease log in to respond to this comment.I shall try but he's too black to photograph as no features are discernible...Please log in to respond to this comment.
Hi Paul.
This was hilarious! You think maybe Nudnick's mom knew something?
It's sad that he is so cruel to Squeakie though. But it says something that she is still there and hanging on. Could be, you never know, that having to deal with Nudnick has kept her sharp and contributed to her long life. You know, sheer cussedness and not wanting to let Nudnick win. :)
I love cats. They are so smart and so funny and so serious about themselves.
Thanks!
Hugs,
DiannePlease log in to respond to this comment.You always make me laugh.
She, the 'Queen', may well have stood back, purposefully, for hours while he wailed alone in a pouring rain under a woodpile, knowing full well that he was an astonishing pain in the derriere and that I, always available with food, would eventually move in to fill that feline vacuum.
My life was certainly wrecked for quite a while by Nudnick; I had to buy a gorilla cage for the basement to incarcerate his litter box, toys, and him, when we went out, just to protect weak, senile old Squeakie from Alpha male alleycat assaults.......Please log in to respond to this comment.
Love the article. We had a cat once, who lived by the number two rule; curtain climbing. We ended up taking him to a farm in WVA, and gave him away as a kitten. "Major" was his name, and he ended up being over 30+ lbs, and was fed on top of a refrigerator (outback) there.
That huge cat would come from the wooded mountains, and leap to the top in a single bound....so glad he got to grow up there. We could never have handled him. Glad we saw his personality upfront; wild and free, so that's what he got to be.
There are some cats, who don't want to be pets inside, and they should have their shots and live their intended life. On the farm in WVA, there was another white cat, female, who hated 'Major', and vice versa, so they divided the yard. He took the back, with access to the mountains behind, and she patrolled the front. Quite an arrangement, and funny too.
Your predicament makes a great story.Please log in to respond to this comment.Major lived up to his given name with physical status and forest- rank and lived a marvelous karma; what a wonderful story ending!.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Excellent article Paul. And I've never seen a more beautiful cat. Gray tabbies are my favorite ones. The are calm, cool and lovely. I once found a baby orange stripe tabby abandoned near the plant where I worked. When I arrived, always the first there, I heard a frightened reptitive death cry from the sedge growing along side the road. I found him and you could tell he thought he was done for. I took the little fellow home right then and gave it to my girls where I knew he would be in good hands. He became the family pet but about two years old, he became sick and the doc said he had a cancer. He died shortly. There was weeping in my household.Please log in to respond to this comment.Sorry for your loss but cheered by your rescue; there are people who would have abandoned him, but not your heart.
Cats are appreciative and loving creatures and unlike dogs do not stick their nose up your fanny.
What's your opinion on this?
http://paulschroeder.wrytestuff.com/swa781298-Family-Of-Man-Evolution-And-The-Human-Genome-Project.htm
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