Even Pets Make Friends

I have what can only be described as the world's most unpleasant cat.  To everyone else, that is.  I adore the thing, but she is rather...well...not nice to everyone else.  Ok, that's an understatement.  She hisses and claws at anyone who is unfortunate enough to walk through the door.  It's entirely my fault.  The first day I had her was the day I moved to Chicago, and she spent much of the first few years stuck in a studio apartment in the sky, with next to no human interaction.  I supposed technically I was human, but as I was a law student, that is a debatable point.  Anyway, when people did enter her life, she wasn't thrilled with it, to say the least.

Also not shocking,she is not a huge fan of change.  Each time I moved in Chicago, she went ballistic.  She even found her way up into a bathroom cabinet once, making me think that she had somehow Houdini-ed out of the apartment or that we had left her somewhere.  Ask my friend who was kind enough to help me move--I was ballistic, thinking she was somewhere between the Loop and Lincoln Park.  But a few days later, she eventually made her way down and out into the apartment.  Then, just as she was getting settled, we moved again.  Tragic.

So fast forward to the most recent, rather large, move.  Of course she was not a huge fan of the drive out.  I tried to drug her (and me), but neither worked.  So she sat, terrified, in a carrier in the back listening to me bawl and the baby yell.  When we got here, we had no furniture for a week, so there really wasn't anywhere for her to hide.  And man did she let me know it.  But eventually her stuff came and the other day we even unpacked her three-tiered scratching post (I believe in bribing family and friends with gifts).  So she's relatively happy.

But the kicker is that she has made friends.  Seriously. I have mentioned the screen doors that allow the baby to see out.  Well, they also allow the cat to see out.  And there are two neighborhood cats who roam around and have sensed the cat is here so they saunter into the backyard to say hi.  The cat stares at them and they stare at her.  I presume that there is some taunting--"ha, you can't come outside" versus "why do your humans make you leave the house."  But everyone seems to get along rather well, considering.  And she seems to like it.  It's their own morning ritual.  Classic.

Just goes to show you, I guess.  If this cat can make friends (particularly at this stage in her rather long life), maybe there is hope for all of us.