Wednesday, April 04, 2007

My Little Broken Kitten

Gil has always been unusual. Terrified of humans, eats french fries, will play with raw penne pasta for hours... unusual. But nothing is less cat-like than his refusal to jump. Counters, tables, fridge-- all cat free because Gil won't tackle any leap exceeding twelve inches. I haven't pursued this phobia because I don't like cat hair in my food, but with The Window Issue I can no longer ignore it.

Before I moved my bed, there was a big open space under one of my windows, and there Gil would sit with a look of longing in his eyes-- sniffing the fresh air, dreaming of all the humans he could watch from behind protective glass. Life could be so good! And when I moved the bed under the window, I figured his dream would be realized. Barely a foot between the bed and his own portal to the world! Gil would be in the window all the time! And it turns out he is in the window all the time-- but he refuses to jump there. No, he balances his back legs on the bed, front legs on the sill, sinks his claws in to the ledge, lets go with the back legs leaving himself dangling in mid-air and then hoists himself up and over. I have never seen a less graceful cat in my whole entire life.



I think we're related.

3 comments:

Simon said...

TOO. CUTE.

Christi said...

Sounds like my cat at my mom's, Miss Kitty. She has depth perception problems, and she's slightly wall-eyed like Marty Feldman, and when she away from you down the stairs she starts at the right side and ends on the left. She also frequently will aim for the window ledge and fall a few inches short, so that she ends up digging her claws in like Gil to heave herself up, or she just hits the wall instead. She also likes to attack her tail.. Matt's rendition of her inner-Gollum is hilarious.

Yeah, she's a "special" cat, in every meaning of the word. I'm sure Gil is fine. If he starts to look like he's having a lethal conversation with his tail (or that his tail is "talking to him") I'd be concerned.

Christi said...

*correction*

my grammar and spelling is horrendous. the sentence reading "and when she away from you down the stairs..." should read "and when she runs away from you..."