
"Washing-line cat". Suzie gets excited when I do my laundry...
I have enjoyed Suzie, my half-manx cat, for more than four and a half years now.
I've always had a cat, or have for the majority of my life anyway. Each one has had its own idiosyncrasies, something unique to them that imprints itself on my mind.
I thought I would love to share some funnier idiosyncrasies of Suzie..
Suzie was first dubbed "Washing line cat" by my neighbour. Whenever I used to peg my laundry out where I currently live, Suzie would find this reason enough to stay present during the process. Something about my putting the washing on the line would attract her, and she would rub herself against my legs, and take interest in the whole affair enough to pull her away from other parts of the garden.
When I mop the floors, Suzie does the cutest thing...she follows the mop movement so that her little head goes to and fro, to and fro -much like a person watching a tennis match!! I thought if I did this, I'd get motion sickness, but she becomes quite involved in the procedure.

- Suzie enjoys the spectacle of my mopping the floor
Suzie loves the bed being made. Not when I remake it in the morning - no, no, fresh sheets are in order if Suzie is to find it worthwhile. It doesn't usually take her long to dive under the sheets. When she notices the bed has been stripped and ready for fresh linen, she trots into the room, the bait of interest being set in her eyes. After the bottom sheet has been placed, Suzie waits with expectation until the next sheet goes on. Some time between the placing of these two sheets, she dives with enthusiasm and great vigour between the two! I see her little form move this way and that under the top sheet, as I persist with difficulty and in vain trying to tuck the top sheet in. She stays for the process unafraid that she'll get permanently wedged between the two sheets. I watch her for a time with amusement until she finally comes out. Finally she'll sit atop the bed I finally get to make it, enjoying the feel and smell of the fresh linen.

- Suzie has an understandable love of fresh linen
Suzie hasn't done this since she was a kitten, but I smile when I think about it. When she had a target in mind, which is usually a random object such as a leaf, she would first crouch low, as if she had a prey in mind she wanted to fully focus upon. She would concentrate fully in this position. Then, to my great amusement and that of others watching she would wriggle her little bottom side to side for some time!!! Finally, she would run and pounce upon the unsuspecting leaf or other inanimate object! But moving her little rear end was always part of the process!
The "I'm so glad to see you 'trot'. When I would come home from uni, shopping or any venture for that matter, Suzie would break into what my neighbour and I would call 'a trot'. Not a walk, no there was too much vigour in her step for that. It was a trot right up to meet me, like a pony. This would probably be a good one hundred metres or so, right from when I was first in her view. In a lot of ways, the manx cat has been likened to being more like a dog, and this probably is one of Suzie's habits that illustrates why.
These idiosyncrasies are uniquely Suzie's. They are what makes the little girl I so love, her.
#Cats
#Pet Stories