This Valentines Day, I had planned an evening at home with the people that I love, but my evening soon went tits-up when we realised we couldn’t find the cat. Her owner, who had just received her engagement ring in the post and was heading out to show it to her fiancé who hadn’t seen it yet – this was the last thing she needed just before she headed out, and thus got a little distressed… We searched the house top to bottom, she wasn’t there. She had literally disappeared. We began searching the local streets for our little stray, Scout. Although we tried to keep calm and think logically, one or two of us became distraught and possibly a little bit hysterical…
There were two reasons we were so worried. First, because she has never before been outside. Second – and the reason she’s never been out – until recently, she has never before been in heat. We knew she was in heat because she had been yowling (very loudly) a lot more than usual and kept sticking her bum in the air. The thing with cats, is that you can’t trust them not to get preggers. AND they won’t tell you about it when they do get knocked-up.
After several hours of searching, drinking a little too much and some underfloor caving on a particularly macho-feeling housemate’s part, we eventually located Scout and returned her to the safety of loving human arms. She had been hiding
Valentines Day is No Excuse to Behave like a Cat in Heat
So, while Scout has since been bathed and neutered, I got thinking about her slightly crazy behaviour. There were two possible extremes of behaviour: a) running away because she was horny and wanted some male attention, and b) hiding in a cold dark dusty corner where she spent the evening scared and alone.
One can hardly give advice or counseling to a cat. But in a human, this kind of behaviour is deemed either desperate or depressed – both of which are quite pertinent on the dreaded V-Day for a single girl. I was lucky to have three awesome housemates and two wonderful siblings to eat pizza, drink beer and watch Star Wars with. What with hilarious companions and the cat drama I barely noticed it was Valentine’s Day at all. But, had I been alone, I may have been more than a little bit inclined to act like the cat was doing. Or to run away and flash my bum to strangers. One of the two.
Click the link above to read my full post-Valentine’s epic drama special on aliljoy.com
Zhēn de Gender 