An Addendum to Finding The Feline

Recently we have had problems with cat fights in and around our house. We’ve yet to actually see the culprit but we assume it is coming in the cat-door looking for food. When it arrives it is confronted by three cats, none of whom wish to share their food or their home. They are actually quite territorial.

The last few days we have even heard these squalling events during the day, but by the time we get there, all there is to see are three  growling cats with big tails. For some reason when a cat is in a Fight or Flight situation every hair on its tail stands straight out. Perhaps they are trying to make themselves look big.

Kashmere the Jester

As I mentioned in the post “ Finding The Feline”, Kashmere is the newest addition to our feline family. Until recently it has been very hot here, and so he is currently sporting what the groomers call a “ lion cut “, which makes him look ridiculous right from the get go. However this afternoon he really didn’t need the help of the hair cut to achieve that.

He is probably about ten months old and still has a lot of the kitten about him. He loves to hide around corners and wait for anyone, cat or human, to come along so he can leap on them, and he will chase just about anything short of the Santorini  (drinking water) truck.

This afternoon I was in my usual position in the dining room in front of the lap top and Todd was in the bedroom having a nap, when the squalling began in the back yard. What with my leg brace and walker I’m not the fastest thing on two feet, and since Todd had been asleep, neither of us got outside very quickly. But this time the yowling was still going on so we thought we might finally catch our cat burglar.

What we found instead were Bindi and Scooter sitting on the patio chairs, and I swear they were laughing. Kashmere was racing around the back yard hollering like a banshee with a fairly large lizard attached to his front paw. By the time we finally cornered Kashmere I guess the lizard was too tired to hang on any longer and he let go of the foot and lay sprawled on the grass, upside down, with his feet waving feebly in the air. By this time Kashmere was probably in the next colonia.

I turned the lizard over, carefully, as by now I knew that he had teeth and a very strong jaw, and he was really beautiful. Oddly, only yesterday I was mentioning to Todd that I hadn’t seen a lizard since we moved to San Miguel and we were inundated with them in Patzcuaro.

Although this one was like nothing I had ever seen in Patzcuaro. Firstly it was quite large, at least 6 inches long, with a very long tail, and secondly, it was much more colourful than any of the lizards I had seen in Mexico previously. I tried to find out on the net what it was, and it may have been a collared lizard or a whiptail. It had a beautiful turquoise blue design on its back and kind of a long pointed face.

Unfortunately in the commotion both of us neglected to get a picture of the lizard. However, I reiterate…cats provide hours of entertainment.