I Married A Cat Whisperer

Is there any truth behind the barrel loads of 'wisdom' that creep into our conversations? You know the ones about not trying to change someone, and the fervent urgings to not change yourself in order to suit a mate? 

Ja, well, no fine. I beg to differ. For instance, the world is pretty much divided into either dog or cat people, and I got hitched to a Dog Man who had a series of rather gorgeous Boerbuls. A chunky breed of dog, strappingly built with melty soft eyes and muzzles and natures to match, unless you got on the wrong side of them, then watch out. A definite match of owner to pet, in this case. We agreed to accommodate our separate choice of pet and in due course the dogs found new homes and cats ruled our roost. It just happened, I promise. No devious machinations behind the scenes. 

One of our rescue cats, Speckle, is a bit short of feline genes and owns precisely two brain cells, which rattle like marbles inside her skull. The first cell controls her body - breathe, eat, clean, walk, sleep and so on. The second is solely focused on needing love. At all times. From whoever. 

Spotting her victim, she moved in on Him Outdoors and within a few years had him fawning over her, in turn adopting him as her own. Sleeping on his lap, sitting on top of his packed suitcases and visiting him to inspect his renovations on Henry the Campervan, even daring to sit inside and keep him company. The funniest was when she plonked herself at his side once, growling fiercely when HO opened the door to an late night visitor.

I've previously mentioned how our cats loathe car trips and my circle of friends have been regaled with re-enactments of taking them to the vet or, once, a 4 hour journey during which they ceaselessly howled. It was dreadful.
https://lightlygreen.blogspot.co.za/2017/02/i-covered-traumatic-cat-trip-to-vetsin.html.

HO, bubbling with that boundless optimism of his, insists that packing them into Henry and embarking on a 6 week trip through 5 African countries is possible, and took their curious exploration of Henry at every opportunity to 'prove' his point - that they'll love the campervan. So, we tested his theory with a 4 hour journey on Sunday.

It's official - I married a Cat Whisperer, much as it pains me to admit he was right. Oh, at first it ran to plan. Sullenly loaded into the carriers, they waited for the magic ignition moment to begin warming up their vocal chords, preparatory to launching into the concerto.

"Let them out of the carriers," HO instructed. "They'll explore then settle down." I warned him but hey, lets prove him wrong. So out they came and voila, the volume increased exponentially and we now had a full-on version of La Boheme, sung by the Hounds of the Baskervilles. Aha, told you so.

Speckle bounced like a rubber ball from side to side, staring out of the rear window and showing off her tonsils to the vehicle behind us. Anushka climbed onto HO's lap for a look through the windscreen then curled up beneath his seat. In due course, Speckle sat on my lap and Anushka spread herself out on the bed and the journey continued peacefully. I would never have believed it and if I wasn't with them at all times, would, quite frankly, have suspected some behind the scenes doping. It simply wasn't possible that his frequent soothing 'chats' to them could have wrought this miracle. But it did.

To add insult to injury, they were rather hesitant about their new digs at first, as you would expect. But it completely took the biscuit when we discovered Speckle hiding in HIS suitcase, where she remained for a day or so.  

As the one who feeds, brushes, cares for their health and wellbeing, I do feel a little underappreciated. The bigger lesson is, however, that people in relationships do change. Whether you call it adjustment or adaptation, a dyed in the wool Dog Man is now putty in a cat's paws, while I was quite sad to see the back of Rufus and Bull, the Boerbul dogs.