A dramatic shot of Scaredy Cat. The reigning, ruling matriarch and Queen of the feral cat scene in the Berkeley hills.
For awhile I thought Mini Scaredy (her daughter) was going to take over as the dominant cat. Especially when she started running some of the other cats out of my campsite and up trees. And when Scaredy Cat’s kittens first showed up at my campsite last month, she started growling at them, and I thought she might try to run them off, too.
But she always defers to Scaredy Cat. Because they’re best friends. And maybe because Scaredy Cat is her mom.
This is a little weird. A twist in the plot amongst my feral cats.
For years, Moo Cat used to bully Blondie. She’d regularly hiss at her and slash at her and try to drive her off the scene. Blondie never fought back. She’s always been a pretty timid cat. She just took the abuse with a look of exasperation.
But lately it’s like the worm has turned. The pecking order has shifted. And Blondie is now the dominant feral cat of the tribe. Like this morning, I put out two dishes of cat food. One for Blondie and one for Moo Cat. Blondie starts eating from her dish. But then she decides, “I want Moo Cat’s dish, too.” So she pushes her face into Moo Cat’s dish and starts eating Moo Cat’s food, too. Blondie has taken over both dishes!
Moo Cat runs over to me, whimpering loudly at the unfairness of it all. I’m sort of like: “Well, that’s what you get, Moo Cat. What goes
Moo Cat. Righteously indignant, as usual.
around comes around. The same cats you abused on the way up, you might meet up on the way back down.”
So now I have to put Blondie’s dish way over there. And Moo Cat’s dish way over on the other side. Just so they eat in peace.
But I wonder what happened. I think Blondie finally got sick of taking Moo Cat’s shit. And kicked her ass. Settled it once and for all. Or maybe she teamed up with this big new gray feral tom cat that’s been on the scene lately who she’s real friendly with. And they double-teamed poor ole Moo Cat.
I swear. Sometimes, feral cats can act just as uncivilized and poorly behaved as human beings.
