Is she a cat?
I have to ask, is she a cat? It’s Shadow I’m worried about. I know she’s been masquerading as a dog all these years, but I do sometimes wonder if there might be a cat underneath. It’s not her independence on this occasion, or her desire to curl up in a sunny spot and stretch out. It isn’t even that everything has to be on her own terms. What I’m worrying about is what she did yesterday morning.
Wanting to go out
When a dog wants to go out, it generally does one of two things. Either, we go to sit by the door and wait for you to notice, or we bark. Some dogs are trained to ring a bell, but they are the exception. Yesterday morning Mum was still asleep when Shadow wanted to go out. Obviously, there was no point in her going to sit by the door as Mum wouldn’t have known. I’ve already mentioned that Shadow seems to have given up wanting to bark, which in itself is nothing short of a miracle. Yesterday she took a very cat like approach to the problem.
Waking Mum
Shadow put her front paws onto the bed and then used her right paw to tap Mum to wake up. Given that, apart from Shadow, Mum was alone in the room and that it’s not the sort of thing she’d expect, Mum was rather startled awake. Shadow was waiting patiently to tap her again if she needed to. Mum said she was really gentle and polite about it, but wasn’t behaving at all like a dog. Anyway, Mum got up and took Shadow out and both of them seemed very happy with the arrangement. Now Mum is suggesting we could all opt for the more gentle approach instead of barking at her. Yeah, right! As if I’m going to miss out on the fun of making her jump by barking in her ear.
Love
Wilma