Our Crazy Cat

I thought I'd take some time to share the story of our furriest family member, our cat, Samadhi. I've always been more of a dog person, but I don't mind cats. And considering that we live in a second floor apartment and we have no fenced-in yard, a dog isn't the best fit.

Last winter, one of my friends was getting ready to leave Italy and separate from the Air Force. He had a cat that he needed to get rid of. I figured that we could use a nice house pet, so I took the cat.

He told me that he hadn't had the cat very long, he got her from a friend but he didn't know how the cat had been treated before he got her. He said she was really afraid of people, and ususally spent all day in hiding. But once in awhile she'd come out and be friendly.

My friend never really had a name for her. So we named her 'Samadhi'. It is a Sanskrit word that means to establish or make whole. It is also a term that means a higher state of conciousness in Buddhist and Hindu religions as well as in yoga. And I think its a cool name for a cat!

At first, Samadhi was naturally afraid of her new surroundings. But after a few weeks of hiding under a futon, she got comfortable with Susan and I. She started to come out and play with us all the time. She'd chase little things all over the floor. She started sleeping in our room at the foot of our bed. But she was still deathly afraid of strangers. Whenever we had visitors she would run and hide under a bed somewhere.

We took her to the vet, got her checked out and her shots updated and all that. The vet said she was a healthy cat. They couldn't tell us how old she was but she seemed pretty young because she was pretty active and always running around the house. For the first 6-9 months we had her, she was an indoor cat She was petrified to go near our front door. Lots of strange noises out there!

When autumn came around we noticed that she liked to go out on our balcony and watch the birds in the trees. She would even walk along the balcony railing and scare the crap out of Susan and I becuase a few times it looked like she almost fell.

NIGHTSTALKER
One night, at around 4 in the morning I woke up to some weird noise. It sounded like our cat was chewing on something. I got up and looked through my half-open eyes at Samadhi sitting there eating what looked like a large, dead, black, birdlike animal. I turned on the light, and due to my drowsy state, I still had trouble making out what it was. I decided (probably against better judgement) to pick the thing up for a closer examination.

My first thought was, "Wow". It was a bat. A half eaten bat. The head was half eaten. One wing was gone. I could barely tell what it was. It must have been flying around one of our windows we leave open when the weather is nice. Poor creature...

Samadhi sat there with her bright blue eyes staring at me, begging for it back.

Considering that it was 4 in the morning and I had to get up for work in a couple hours, I really didn't feel like dealing with this situation. Again, against better judgement, I tossed the mangled bat back on the floor and said "enjoy your meal". Samadhi lunged for it and continued her early breakfast. I went back to sleep.

The next morning, it looked like nothing ever happened. There was no mess whatsoever. Gotta love that about cats. The only eveidence of the fiasco was a little broken piece of batwing. It was the part that looks kinda like an arm that the wing attaches to. I picked it up and threw it in the garbage. When we got home from work that day, that same little arm was back on the floor. The garbage can had been knocked over. The trash had been spread all over the room in our cat's attempt to reclaim her only remaining trophy of her prized kill.

SUNDAY MORNING CRAZINESS
A few days after the bat incedent, Samadhi brought another episode of excitement into our apartment. This time it was a Sunday morning. We slept late, late for us is like 9am.

I was lying half awake in bed and heard some racket in the living room. I got out of bed to go check it out and in comes Samadhi strutting into our room with a little bird in her mouth. The bird was still alive and fluttering its wings trying to escape. Apparently Samadhi had no intention of killing the bird, I guess she just wanted to play with it and show off her catch.

But this time I decided to side with the bird and try to take our kitty's prize away. I picked up the cat to take her out to the balcony, but the bird fell out of her mouth and onto the ground. So I put the cat down to get the bird. But the cat was quicker than I was and she snatches up the bird again. DOH! I grab the cat again and head towards the door, the bird still fluttering in Samadhi's jaws. I''m almost to the open door and the bird breaks free and flies out back into the tree. Samadhi is back on the balcony railing just staring at that bird who got away.

Not 2 seconds later, ANOTHER bird flies into the house through the open balcony door! What the hell is going on this morning??? Samadhi bounds off the balcony and proceeds to chase this bird around our living room while Susan and I just stood there helplessly watching and laughing at the craziness. After about 3 laps around our living room, the bird flew back out the door and the cat had to watch her prey get away again.

HOW TO TRAIN A CAT
I don't really know much about cats. So I usually assume they're pretty much like dogs.

After all these animals that our cat had been chasing around, I started wondering if she might like to go outside. So I figured the first step would be to get her used to being outside. So one day I picked her up and walked down our apartment's stairwell to the little courtyard outside our building. She was squirming trying to get away, she was still scared to be outside of our apartment.

But when I got her down there and set her on the ground, she just froze and stood there looking around. She looked at me like, "what the hell am I supposed to do out here?"

I could tell she was scared so I took her back inside.

The next day I did the same thing again. This time she was a little more willing to explore her surroundings. She walked around for few minutes before she looked like she'd had enough. The next time I took her down, I set her down on the steps in the stairwell and made her follow me down part way. When she got outside, I started walking around and she followed me everywhere I went. So I grabbed a book and sat down on the outside stairs in our courtyard and let her play in the grass. She was really starting to like her new surroundings. We stayed out there for almost 2 hours before I got tired and brought her back in.

After only a few days of taking her outside, Samadhi seemed like she was ready to be on her own. I started jingling my keys right before I took her out in the hopes that she would start associating the sound with going outside - kinda like a dog. I had no idea if it would work.

Samadhi got used to the stairwell and she walked down the stairs on her own now. And when she got outside, she leaped right out and into the grass of the courtyard. I decided it was time to leave her on her own for a bit, so while she was busy exploring some shrubbery, I went back inside. I came to check on her after an hour or so and she was still in the same area just having a great time playing in the dirt and grass. I left her again for another hour, and then an hour after that. When she was finally ready to come back in she was so tired she went to her little blanket and fell asleep for the rest of the evening.

After that point, Samadhi was an outdoor kitty. We would leave her out there for hours and when we'd go to check on her she'd come bounding out of some bush and follow us up the stairs. Her normal schedule was to be outside for 3-4 hours in the evening and then back inside for the night.

During the last winter, she would only stay outside for a few hours at a time. But when spring rolled around and the weather got nicer, Samadhi couldn't get enough of the outdoors. Anytime she heard the keys jingle she would run to the front door and wait for us to open it. Now that summer is here she stays outside all day and sometimes all night. She'll come in to eat, drink, and maybe for an occasional nap or for some attention from Susan and I.

And since she's been going outside, there have been no more bat or bird incidents!

RISK MANAGEMENT
Ok, sorry to bore you with all that. But I had to give you some background information so I could get to the real story.

So now that Samadhi is pretty much an outdoor cat, we found ourselves with another problem.

We travel. We are gone almost every weekend.

I know cats can fend for themselves, but we really don't like leaving her outside for more than a day. Especially now with the summer heat.

So when we went to France for a weekend we left her in the apartment with plenty of food and water. We leave a couple windows open and also the balcony door is cracked open so she can get to her litter box.

When we got back on Sunday night, she was nowhere in the house. We went looking for her outside, and out she came, running towards us from some shrubs.

How did she get out? We live on the second floor?

We are assuming she jumped out a window or leaped onto a tree branch and climbed down. I was afraid she might have been hurt, but she wasn't hurt at all. She was totally fine. It looked like she'd eaten plenty of her food. So she probably waited awhile before she decided to try to escape the empty aprtment.

The next weekend we went camping for 4th of July weekend. As we were walking out to take our stuff down to the car, Samadhi was trying to sneak out the front door. We had to grab her and put her in a bedroom. As we were getting in the car, we heard her sad meowing from the open window. She was sitting in the window watching us leave and meowing as if to ask us to please let her out! Poor kitty. We were gone almost four full days.

When we got back on Tuesday afternoon, she was outside again. Again not injured. And again her food was eaten so she must have stayed in for a couple days before she jumped out.

I started wondering what goes through a cat's mind when they're deciding if they want to jump out of a window?

I figure she stays inside and sulks for a day or two. Then eventually thinks, "screw this, I'm so outta here!"

I wonder if she thinks we're not coming back. Or maybe she expects us back in a day or two. Maybe two days is her max. After that she just can't resist the excitment of the grass, trees, bushes, dirt, birds, and bugs of the great outdoors.

In any case, she must be using some form of risk management. Her mind must go through some sort of risk assemsment. Does she weigh the risk of jumping out a window? At what point does the benefit of jumping outweigh the risk of possibly getting hurt?

I can't help but wonder.

But I think Susan and I have been good first time cat owners. We took in this cat that was afraid of everything. And now she's brave enough to stay outside day and night and even jump out windows to do it!

Like I said, I've never really been a cat person. But Samadhi has brought lots of joy into our house. She's made us laugh countless times and she's always happy to see us when we get home from work or a vacation.

If anyone knows anything about cats, we're still learning - so we're all ears to any tips.

And can anyone out there tell me what kind of cat she is? She's looks sort of like a Persian I think. We've been told maybe she's a Himalayan. Any other ideas?