Prince John, the cat
I step downstairs in the morning and he greets me with a demanding:
DO YOU LOVE MEEEEE!!???
in the form of:
MMMEEEEEOOOOUUWW?!!!
And it's not OK to just answer: Sure, baby, I love you. It takes tuna, cuddling and cajoling to convince this ginger fellow.
My friends, whose place I'm at, call him Rödis - "Red one" in English. He's been an outdoor cat around their farm on and off, but two weeks ago, they found him at the stables. He was severly injured and couldn't even stand up. Since he was an outdoor cat and they didn't even know if he had another owner, they hadn't got an insurance on him or anything. But they have warm hearts, so one expensive visit at the vet's told them that he'd been hit by a car on his left side of the head. Cortison and rest was all they could do. The vet said he'd get better or die.
Well, this fellow is tough, as you may imagine. Apart for looking a bit like the mangy lion in Robin Hood season 3, episode 5, he's behaving like true royalty.
"Cuddle me, cuddle me good and then cuddle me some more. Unless you want me to pee in the wrong place and yell like a banshee! "
He has a point. He's good enough to be brave, foolish and bored with indoor life. Just outside the old kitchen door, he can smeel the other cats and all the fun outside. It's just that every time he shakes his head, he falls over to the left. By now, it looks more funny than alarming, but he's not ready for outdoor activities like climbing and fighting with other cats. THAT would probably take the last of his nine lives pretty quickly.
Problem is that it would take about five hours of cuddling to get him pleased. And when you try to leave, he attacks the leg - GRAB! After that, he bleats like a baby sheep with some strange version of tonsillitis. He demands attention in a true Prince John fashion!
He's loads of fun, in other words. I sure hope he makes it, even if he makes me sneeze. Life is empty without pets, even those with megalomania.
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