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Leo is big, long-haired and aptly named - definitely the
King.
The vet has this comment on Leo's record: Big, wild tom.
Big? Yes. He has such a muscular chest that his front legs bow out a little and
he always looks like he is stalking. He walks like a lion - and he's the colour
of a lion.
Wild? Well not in the sense that no-one owns him. And not in the sense that he
is bad tempered, temperamental in any way, or attacks anything and everything
either. He just doesn't like going to the vet and having them stick needles in
him or try to force a tablet down his throat. And who can blame him? I don't
like it either - for him or me. Unless it is a visit for a quick jab only, he
has to be sedated to protect the hands and arms of both the vet and me.
Tom? Yes, he's a male, very male - but neutered. Perhaps if he wasn't, he
really would be wild.
Actually, you know, I have to admit he is in fact quite the scaredy cat; so
much so that he often runs from his own shadow. Yes, literally. He runs at the
slightest noise outside the window, someone ringing the doorbell, a loud
sneeze, anything being dropped, or if I lean over the top of him to say hello.
When I first got him, he was much worse. These days, he's actually mellowed to
the point where he'll get ready to run when the doorbell goes but if it is
someone he knows - knows very well - he might stay around. If not, he might
come back before they actually leave! Some people, he even allows to pat him
but that can't be guaranteed. Ok, he might be a little temperamental in that
regard.
His colour is beautiful and his tummy is covered in long, silky white hair. As
soon as you see it, you just want to sink your fingers into it and tickle him.
And you can, if you don't mind losing your fingers! Touch his tummy and he really
becomes a big, wild tom - teeth and claws! Yet you can rub - even mash -
his face between your hands, and pull his ears back and he loves it. He'll take
hours of it.
He lives indoors but I'm sure he'd be the boss of the neighbourhood if he was
allowed outside. Some might think it is cruel to keep a cat inside. On some
levels it isn't ideal, but I can't have it any other way. Two reasons: first
is, like many of the cats in this neighbourhood, he would probably get run
over. But the second, and most important reason is, I have a garden that
attracts birds and I live on the edge of native bushland. Feral cats are a huge
problem in this country and our birds and native animals have no real defence
against predators other than large birds - eagles, owls and kookaburras - and
dingoes which aren't around the suburban areas, even the ones way out from the
cities. The majority of the small animals are nocturnal, giving cats an even
better chance against them. In most areas, including mine, domestic cats aren't
allowed out between 6pm and 6am. Any cat found outside during those others will
bring a huge fine against their owners and are likely to be destroyed.
Feral cats, foxes and cane toads are decimating our wildlife - all are
introduced species. Rabbits are just as bad. They don't hunt or eat the
wildlife, but they eat all the grass which gives them habitat or provides other
sources of food, such as insects. Obviously, there is a whole ecology going on
'out there' where it's eat or be eaten, but we don't have any large predators
in the general population of small animals and birds. Up north, of course,
there are crocs but that's limited compared to the average bushland or
backyard. My backyard is planted with bird attracting trees, so I have a
responsibility to them as well. I want the birds in my garden.
So, back to Leo - who lives - er rules inside. I have two dogs and when they
are outside, Leo loves to sit on the window sill or at the sliding glass door
and watch them with a superior look on his little face. When they come in,
well, he's fairly good with them these days, but he used to go into hiding.
Gradually, he started coming out, taking one step at a time, every hair on
alert. Then he got to the stage where he would even stay in the same room as
them, keeping a watchful eye and ready to flee at even the hint of movement.
Now, he not only stays in the same room with them, he sleeps with his back to
them. I can't wait until the day he sleeps on the same bedding with them. But,
I could be waiting for eternity before that happens. He's not so reticent about
sleeping on my bed, though, and many the night I wake up and find I am on the
edge of the mattress while he is sleeping, stretched out, in the middle! And
it's a queen size bed!
My daughter tells me I overfeed him, but I don't. I can't. He's a fussy eater.
One brand of cat food only, and one flavour only: Seafood Platter. He eats a
dried food with dentine in it, but only the prescribed amount. He's just a big
cat with leonine muscles.
The only disadvantages are the amount of hair he sheds and the litter tray, but
everything else makes up for it. He's my last cat because I want to travel more
in a few years time, but I love him and he makes me laugh almost every day. And
he talks to me. We have quite long conversations sometimes. I speak, he meows,
I speak, he meows.
My son laughs at him a lot too, and has a habit of saying (when Leo flees
nothing but a shadow) 'Run, Leo. Save yourself!' It really is so funny to see
such a big, boofy tomcat flee like that. Which is why we often call him Fleo
instead of Leo.
I'm away at the moment, working in an interstate office and my son is minding
Leo. Apparently he's taken over my son's bed, magnanimously allowing him to
share the edge, and is shedding his lovely blonde hair all over my son's
favourite clothes - mostly black clothes. I keep telling him to wear lighter
colours!
When I think of how tiny he was when I got him, one of the smallest kittens
I've ever had in fact, I can't believe how big he is now. He's come a long way
from then, when I had to teach him to eat solid food and comb the fleas off him
because he was too young for anything medicated - and he was covered in fleas,
you could actually see them walking on his face! And, mostly, he seems to have
both ends coordinated, unlike how he used to sit his front end down and his
back end would walk over his head! I didn't think he was ever going to grow out
of that.
Yes, he's come a long way, grown a lot, become less scared, and sometimes I
wish I could just shut him outside for a while, but he can, does and will
continue to rule my roost for some years to come yet. And, when all is said and
done, I'm happy with that.
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