Thursday, April 24, 2008

World’s Greatest Cat

World’s Greatest Cat

Yes, of course, your cat is the greatest. Every cat guardian feels that way. But perhaps some cats are more equally great than others.

Certainly, some cats are rather unusual. Like Zibby Wilder’s Siamese cat, as featured in an article in the San Jose Mercury News. Knowing how cat crazy I am, friend showed the article to me.

Zibby’s Siamese cat Bo, loves cantaloupe. He’ll do almost anything to get some. Zibby says that the first night Bo came to live with her, she noticed that she hadn’t seen him for about an hour – an hour after she ate half a cantaloupe for dessert.

She called for him, and he responded immediately. But his cries were very faint. She followed the cries and thought that he had somehow crawled into the walls through an opening in an old heating unit.

After another hour and a half later and a frantic call to the landlord alerting him that she was going to take a sledgehammer to a wall in the basement apartment to rescue the cat—she opened the refrigerator door for a drink of water.

And she found the cat. Bo. He was shivering, his entire head stained orange. And sitting next to the remains of the other half of the cantaloupe that Zibby had put away into the refrigerator.

But that’s not all. Zibby has another pretty weird cat. Hopper the Gorilla Yeti. Hopper is about 5 years old and weighs 27 pounds.

Zibby, being a former shelter director, has seen a lot of different cats but Hopper is the largest that she has ever seen – and one of the most hilarious.

This big boy has a unique way of getting attention from his guardian. It’s a trick that Zibby has dubbed “Timber!”

Basically, the game of "Timber" involves Hopper either physically cutting off the target person (whoever that might be) and getting the person’s attention by making direct eye contact with the person or making a racket. Then, once he’s got the person’s attention, he suddenly swoons, falling belly up to the ground, with a very discernible “OOMPH!” Just like a tree falling. Hence the name “Timber.”

The game can happen anywhere, anytime. You could be walking down the hall, you could be watching TV, you could be reading in bed – and all of a sudden, right in front of you, on the coffee table, or maybe in the closet (knocking down shoes) – you’ll hear “OOMPH!” and see the giant cat fall.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: Cats are strange creatures.

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