Pedro the Cat
We have a new cat in our neighborhood and he’s teaching us all a few new tricks. Pedro is a young tabby and he is determined to make friends with everyone. He quickly won over my two cats with his golly gee attitude and they all sit under my broad-leafed plants in happy cat bonding. But Pedro does not discriminate against other species. So far, all mammals are part of his family.
When our neighborhood was home to a mama fox and her 5 kits, Pedro often sat nearby, desperately wanting to get a little closer to the gorgeous mother fox, but abiding by her stern glances. When the kits were grown enough for the mother fox to move them down the hill and off to a nearby meadow, Pedro sat nearby, never disturbing the little ones, and watched their departure.
Amazingly he took the same approach with a family of skunks. (I don’t know why our neighborhood has become the preferred nursery of wild creatures.) I watched a mother skunk escorting her 4 wobbly babies across my backyard, and there was Pedro, once again supervising the whole event, wisely taking a stance of noninterference. Can you picture this scene with a dog? Cats, Pedro in particular, seem to have a part of the brain that says, “Wait a minute; let’s think about this before I try to stick my nose into the nether regions of the black and white furry gal.” Dogs, as much as I love them, lack this part of the brain.
Pedro’s approach is: offer friendship to everyone and sometimes it will be reciprocated. Be sure to say good-bye when your friends go away, and don’t interfere when you’ve been asked to mind your own business.
When our neighborhood was home to a mama fox and her 5 kits, Pedro often sat nearby, desperately wanting to get a little closer to the gorgeous mother fox, but abiding by her stern glances. When the kits were grown enough for the mother fox to move them down the hill and off to a nearby meadow, Pedro sat nearby, never disturbing the little ones, and watched their departure.
Amazingly he took the same approach with a family of skunks. (I don’t know why our neighborhood has become the preferred nursery of wild creatures.) I watched a mother skunk escorting her 4 wobbly babies across my backyard, and there was Pedro, once again supervising the whole event, wisely taking a stance of noninterference. Can you picture this scene with a dog? Cats, Pedro in particular, seem to have a part of the brain that says, “Wait a minute; let’s think about this before I try to stick my nose into the nether regions of the black and white furry gal.” Dogs, as much as I love them, lack this part of the brain.
Pedro’s approach is: offer friendship to everyone and sometimes it will be reciprocated. Be sure to say good-bye when your friends go away, and don’t interfere when you’ve been asked to mind your own business.