Meet Mini

Meet Mini, the neighbourhood stray kitten that we seem to have adopted. The joke is that when Mini gets bigger we’ll have to call him Maxi.

Mini has been with us for almost ten days, but we’re still not sure we’re going to keep him. I think he really wants to be kept, however — when we let him out he romps around the yard and checks out the neighbours but before long he’s pawing at the door pleading to be let back in.

Spiff isn’t too crazy about the new guy, although he’s getting used to him. The biggest area of conflict is that Spiff likes to sleep for 20 or so hours a day, and when he’s awake he likes peace and quiet (not unlike his Dad). Mini, on the other hand, is a kitten. Kittens love to play, and they play rough. If you’ve ever seen a room full of kittens play-fighting you’ll know what I mean.

Mini likes to sneak up on Spiff and pounce on him from behind. Sometimes he pounces from the front. The result is a flurry of paws and blood-curdling cat screams and a big poof of flying orange and black fur. (By the way, if that picture of Mini looks familiar, you might be thinking of this.)

Kitty Karma

There are two phenomena that I find interesting as the cats get to know each other. The first is that when Mini attacks Spiff he does it in the exact same way as Spiff used to attack his older “brother” Larry. Spiff would position himself in front of big fat Larry with one paw up, as if to jab. The ears of both cats would go back, you’d hear a low growl and then Spiff would lunge straight at Larry with his front paws extended. It was like a football tackle and it would knock big Larry onto his back. There would be a twist, a rrrRRRROOWWWW and Larry would free himself and run away with Spiff in hot pursuit.

Spiff drove Larry crazy with this trick for years, long after he was no longer a kitten. Despite the wrestling, they did get along well and often snuggled up together. Now Mini seems to be channeling revenge from the late departed Larry.

The other odd phenomenon I’ve noticed is the effect this reincarnation has had on my brain. In the 14 years that I’ve had Spiff, I’ve never mistakenly called him Larry. However, in the past few days, while observing these frontal attacks, I’ve called Spiff Larry three or four times — such as when I’m describing an attack to M:

M: What are they doing?
Blork: Mini is sneaking up on Larry!
M: Larry?
Blork: Uh… Spiff!

There’s a name for this — I think I studied it back when I thought I might become a psychologist. It might be related to state-dependent memory (e.g., if you learn something while in a particular state, you remember it better when in the same state — which is why studying for exams when you’re sleep-deprived and hopped up on coffee only works if you write the exam while sleep-deprived and hopped up on coffee.)

Watch this space for the continuing saga of Larry Spiff and Mini!