The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Reminder To Self: Purr More, Hiss Less

Posted on | August 26, 2010 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

My favorite obscure ukulele player, the Howlin’ Hobbit, has an original number for your delectation:Anyone in Seattle, get down to the Pike Place market and support this wonderful artist.

Category: Art, Blogging, Video

Comments

16 Responses to “Reminder To Self: Purr More, Hiss Less”

  1. Charles Johnson
    August 26th, 2010 @ 10:02 am

    Hiss less? Are you mocking me!

    And I don’t like pussy. No no purring.

  2. Charles Johnson
    August 26th, 2010 @ 2:02 pm

    Hiss less? Are you mocking me!

    And I don’t like pussy. No no purring.

  3. Robert Stacy McCain
    August 26th, 2010 @ 3:29 pm

    There will always be an England…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfK-UzQ48JE

    “Purr More, Hiss Less”

    We took in a cat a couple of years back who’s mother was living under the building of an accupuncturist.

    The mother had already had one litter where all the kittens died (it was winter) and the accupuncturist took in the mother when she saw she was pregnant again and was going to do her best to find homes for them.

    Mrs. The Other McCain was seeing that doctor at the time and asked me if we could keep a kitten at least. We already had two dogs and a cat, but I told her to take the mother and one of the kittens. The kitten we took was a tabby with blue eyes, we named him after our favorite president, Ronald Reagan.

    Ronnie grew up to be a feisty guy, one of our dogs would carry him around in her mouth, I suppose she thought Ronnie was her baby. I found that disturbing at first, I thought she might hurt him, being so small, but our dog was very careful with him.

    When Ronnie was about 2, we took him in a cat carrier to the vets for his annual shots. But as Mrs. The Other McCain was taking him into the vet, Ronnie somehow got out of his carrier and ran off. We searched all day for him. It was February and about 27 degees and we were heartbroken. We put up flyers all over town and just waited for a call, which came about a week later.

    Someone had seen him in a wooded area not far from the vets and I bought a trap. Another neighbor loaned us a 2nd trap. I went before work and after work to check those traps and restock the food if it went bad. I caught two possums the first week and they were pretty reluctant to leave the trap, maybe hoping I’d just refill the tuna in the can. I’d have to kick the back of the trap to get them to leave. They’re actually pretty fearsome looking critters with a lot of very sharp looking teeth.

    After the third week, he was in one of the traps. Oh Halleluja! As I was carrying him to the car, Houdini stuck his paw thru the bars and unlocked the trap and escaped. It was one of the worst mornings I’d ever had. I couldn’t believe it. Would there be a second chance? Wild cats, esp ones that were domesticated, have a really slim chance of survival in the wild. Maximum life expectancy is two years.

    Two more weeks passed and finally I caught him again. I wired the cage shut this time. When I got home with him, he hissed and pounced at the trap’s door. He had become a wild animal. I let him out carefully and he ran under our bed and didn’t come out. Eventually, I had to take the bed apart and he ran into the bathroom. I found a large cardboard box and put a nice blanket in it for him and food, water, catbox and just decided to see what happened.

    He lived in that bathroom for a full year, hissed at anyone who came near him. He’d come out to the door and look at us but if we made a step towards him, back into his box. He would come around one of our dogs, however. He’d rub up against him and purr and that was the saving grace, I think.

    At the end of that year, he let me touch him and after that, he’s been the most affectionate and loving cat imaginable. It was another 6 months before he would go outside, but now, he’s pretty normal. He sleeps with us every night and well, it just says something about the nature of a soul. To me, anyways.

  4. Robert Stacy McCain
    August 26th, 2010 @ 11:29 am

    There will always be an England…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfK-UzQ48JE

    “Purr More, Hiss Less”

    We took in a cat a couple of years back who’s mother was living under the building of an accupuncturist.

    The mother had already had one litter where all the kittens died (it was winter) and the accupuncturist took in the mother when she saw she was pregnant again and was going to do her best to find homes for them.

    Mrs. The Other McCain was seeing that doctor at the time and asked me if we could keep a kitten at least. We already had two dogs and a cat, but I told her to take the mother and one of the kittens. The kitten we took was a tabby with blue eyes, we named him after our favorite president, Ronald Reagan.

    Ronnie grew up to be a feisty guy, one of our dogs would carry him around in her mouth, I suppose she thought Ronnie was her baby. I found that disturbing at first, I thought she might hurt him, being so small, but our dog was very careful with him.

    When Ronnie was about 2, we took him in a cat carrier to the vets for his annual shots. But as Mrs. The Other McCain was taking him into the vet, Ronnie somehow got out of his carrier and ran off. We searched all day for him. It was February and about 27 degees and we were heartbroken. We put up flyers all over town and just waited for a call, which came about a week later.

    Someone had seen him in a wooded area not far from the vets and I bought a trap. Another neighbor loaned us a 2nd trap. I went before work and after work to check those traps and restock the food if it went bad. I caught two possums the first week and they were pretty reluctant to leave the trap, maybe hoping I’d just refill the tuna in the can. I’d have to kick the back of the trap to get them to leave. They’re actually pretty fearsome looking critters with a lot of very sharp looking teeth.

    After the third week, he was in one of the traps. Oh Halleluja! As I was carrying him to the car, Houdini stuck his paw thru the bars and unlocked the trap and escaped. It was one of the worst mornings I’d ever had. I couldn’t believe it. Would there be a second chance? Wild cats, esp ones that were domesticated, have a really slim chance of survival in the wild. Maximum life expectancy is two years.

    Two more weeks passed and finally I caught him again. I wired the cage shut this time. When I got home with him, he hissed and pounced at the trap’s door. He had become a wild animal. I let him out carefully and he ran under our bed and didn’t come out. Eventually, I had to take the bed apart and he ran into the bathroom. I found a large cardboard box and put a nice blanket in it for him and food, water, catbox and just decided to see what happened.

    He lived in that bathroom for a full year, hissed at anyone who came near him. He’d come out to the door and look at us but if we made a step towards him, back into his box. He would come around one of our dogs, however. He’d rub up against him and purr and that was the saving grace, I think.

    At the end of that year, he let me touch him and after that, he’s been the most affectionate and loving cat imaginable. It was another 6 months before he would go outside, but now, he’s pretty normal. He sleeps with us every night and well, it just says something about the nature of a soul. To me, anyways.

  5. Joe
    August 26th, 2010 @ 4:32 pm

    Kittens will go wild if not socialized to humans when young. There is a narrow window of a few weeks where this can occur, beyond that they generally stay wild (although it is still possible to domesticated them after that it is just much much harder).

    So it is weird Ronnie was with you for two years, then was in the wilds for five weeks, and went feral (taking a year to go back to domesticated). Generally, especially if you were nice to him, a cat will recognize you immediately even after a long period on his own.

    Theory one: Is it possible you brought home a different cat that looked like Ronnie? As Nancy would say, there are a lot of Ronald Reagan wannabees but only one Ronnie.

    Then there is theory two: There aren’t any Indian graveyards near those woods are there?

  6. Joe
    August 26th, 2010 @ 12:32 pm

    Kittens will go wild if not socialized to humans when young. There is a narrow window of a few weeks where this can occur, beyond that they generally stay wild (although it is still possible to domesticated them after that it is just much much harder).

    So it is weird Ronnie was with you for two years, then was in the wilds for five weeks, and went feral (taking a year to go back to domesticated). Generally, especially if you were nice to him, a cat will recognize you immediately even after a long period on his own.

    Theory one: Is it possible you brought home a different cat that looked like Ronnie? As Nancy would say, there are a lot of Ronald Reagan wannabees but only one Ronnie.

    Then there is theory two: There aren’t any Indian graveyards near those woods are there?

  7. Robert Stacy McCain
    August 26th, 2010 @ 5:20 pm

    Joe:

    The two theories! Haha, that’s very good.

    Kittens will go wild if not socialized to humans when young. There is a narrow window of a few weeks where this can occur, beyond that they generally stay wild (although it is still possible to domesticated them after that it is just much much harder).

    Domestic animals are dependent on man and their sensory skills are a subset of the skills of the wild forebear. Cats, having been domesticated for inborn hunting property can get feral easily.

    So it is weird Ronnie was with you for two years, then was in the wilds for five weeks, and went feral (taking a year to go back to domesticated). Generally, especially if you were nice to him, a cat will recognize you immediately even after a long period on his own.

    We live in a rural area which means there are a lot of wild animals Ronnie had to compete with for food.

    He almost died on us once, someone shot him but we took him to the vet and they saved him.

    5 weeks of outdoor living in freezing weather. There were 3 snowstorms. Every moment was about survival for him, I’m sure. He lost part of an ear, when I brought him home (it was him) he was totally freaked out. It was two weeks before he even let me touch him for about 20 seconds. He wouldn’t let anyone near him and would hiss at us if we got too close. We even put him on prozac for a couple months on the advice of our vet. Finally a few months later he snapped out of it and let me pick him up and he’s been extremely loving since then and hangs out on the bed with us and asks to be petted and lies on Mrs. The Other McCain’s stomach a lot.

    Right now, he’s at the window and Sophie, our dog is lying to my right, the sweetest little mongrel dog you could want. Now as far as realization goes, Ronnie has no concern about how his viewpoint meshes or clashes with someone else’s. His viewpoint meshes perfectly with ours right now. He just comes up and lies on my foot. That’s his transmission of love and there’s nothing to prove there, nothing confusing at all. He lies there and radiates love and there’s perfect clarity in that. Sophie does the same. She’s lying there radiating love and it’s quite tangible. Can you do that? Can you make yourself that clear? There really is something there with the animals that is relevant to a soul’s realization.

  8. Robert Stacy McCain
    August 26th, 2010 @ 1:20 pm

    Joe:

    The two theories! Haha, that’s very good.

    Kittens will go wild if not socialized to humans when young. There is a narrow window of a few weeks where this can occur, beyond that they generally stay wild (although it is still possible to domesticated them after that it is just much much harder).

    Domestic animals are dependent on man and their sensory skills are a subset of the skills of the wild forebear. Cats, having been domesticated for inborn hunting property can get feral easily.

    So it is weird Ronnie was with you for two years, then was in the wilds for five weeks, and went feral (taking a year to go back to domesticated). Generally, especially if you were nice to him, a cat will recognize you immediately even after a long period on his own.

    We live in a rural area which means there are a lot of wild animals Ronnie had to compete with for food.

    He almost died on us once, someone shot him but we took him to the vet and they saved him.

    5 weeks of outdoor living in freezing weather. There were 3 snowstorms. Every moment was about survival for him, I’m sure. He lost part of an ear, when I brought him home (it was him) he was totally freaked out. It was two weeks before he even let me touch him for about 20 seconds. He wouldn’t let anyone near him and would hiss at us if we got too close. We even put him on prozac for a couple months on the advice of our vet. Finally a few months later he snapped out of it and let me pick him up and he’s been extremely loving since then and hangs out on the bed with us and asks to be petted and lies on Mrs. The Other McCain’s stomach a lot.

    Right now, he’s at the window and Sophie, our dog is lying to my right, the sweetest little mongrel dog you could want. Now as far as realization goes, Ronnie has no concern about how his viewpoint meshes or clashes with someone else’s. His viewpoint meshes perfectly with ours right now. He just comes up and lies on my foot. That’s his transmission of love and there’s nothing to prove there, nothing confusing at all. He lies there and radiates love and there’s perfect clarity in that. Sophie does the same. She’s lying there radiating love and it’s quite tangible. Can you do that? Can you make yourself that clear? There really is something there with the animals that is relevant to a soul’s realization.

  9. Robert Stacy McCain
    August 26th, 2010 @ 6:02 pm

    Why most people are not in state of simple being like cats purring by the fireside all the time? It’s because they have a thousand ways to poison their day.

    I think I could turn and live with animals, they’re so placid and self contain’d,

    I stand and look at them long and long.

    They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

    They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

    They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

    Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,

    Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,

    Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.
    ….

    —Whitman

    One thing about this Whitman poem…animals do have a kind of naturalness we have in many ways lost and seek to regain, but they certainly kneel to one another, with all kinds of dominance, submission and pecking order games.

    In my zoo at home (2 dogs, 3 cats), the smaller female dog rules the roost with the larger male dog being submissive. The female established this early on when we adopted the male. We had the female from the time she was a puppy and when she was 2, we adopted a neighbor’s dog who was a known biter who was going to be put down.

    The first time our female laid eyes on him, she tore him a new one.

    She would have killed him if I hadn’t separated them. She did this daily for a few days, it established her dominance. Not that the male couldn’t fight or didn’t fight. He did, but was no match for our quite muscular and aggressive female. With dogs, the way to attain dominance is go for the jugular right away and don’t relent.

    Cats are even worse. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that all the human behaviors that we lament about are animal behaviors with frosting made of a good tale.

  10. Robert Stacy McCain
    August 26th, 2010 @ 2:02 pm

    Why most people are not in state of simple being like cats purring by the fireside all the time? It’s because they have a thousand ways to poison their day.

    I think I could turn and live with animals, they’re so placid and self contain’d,

    I stand and look at them long and long.

    They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

    They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

    They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

    Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,

    Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,

    Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.
    ….

    —Whitman

    One thing about this Whitman poem…animals do have a kind of naturalness we have in many ways lost and seek to regain, but they certainly kneel to one another, with all kinds of dominance, submission and pecking order games.

    In my zoo at home (2 dogs, 3 cats), the smaller female dog rules the roost with the larger male dog being submissive. The female established this early on when we adopted the male. We had the female from the time she was a puppy and when she was 2, we adopted a neighbor’s dog who was a known biter who was going to be put down.

    The first time our female laid eyes on him, she tore him a new one.

    She would have killed him if I hadn’t separated them. She did this daily for a few days, it established her dominance. Not that the male couldn’t fight or didn’t fight. He did, but was no match for our quite muscular and aggressive female. With dogs, the way to attain dominance is go for the jugular right away and don’t relent.

    Cats are even worse. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that all the human behaviors that we lament about are animal behaviors with frosting made of a good tale.

  11. Joe
    August 26th, 2010 @ 7:13 pm

    …the way to attain dominance is go for the jugular right away and don’t relent.

    Shouldn’t that be rule one for the RNC? Michael Steele, heloooooo!

  12. Joe
    August 26th, 2010 @ 3:13 pm

    …the way to attain dominance is go for the jugular right away and don’t relent.

    Shouldn’t that be rule one for the RNC? Michael Steele, heloooooo!

  13. Mary Rose
    August 27th, 2010 @ 12:45 am

    I love Howlin’ Hobbit! My husband is known as “Pippin” on the uke boards. And… a shameless plug for his magazine, Ukulele Player. I have to say that the uke lovers are some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people I’ve met. They’ve got a great online community.

    Do you like Jake Shimabukuro? Not so obscure but phenomenal. And just for the fun of it, I have to include the hilarious Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. 🙂

  14. Mary Rose
    August 26th, 2010 @ 8:45 pm

    I love Howlin’ Hobbit! My husband is known as “Pippin” on the uke boards. And… a shameless plug for his magazine, Ukulele Player. I have to say that the uke lovers are some of the nicest, most down-to-earth people I’ve met. They’ve got a great online community.

    Do you like Jake Shimabukuro? Not so obscure but phenomenal. And just for the fun of it, I have to include the hilarious Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. 🙂

  15. Mary Rose
    August 27th, 2010 @ 9:27 am

    BTW, I enjoyed the story about Ronnie. I’m not a cat person at all, though, but can appreciate the patient pursuit of winning back trust. I’m glad you did what you did and just left him alone for awhile until he got used to being inside a house again. Poor little guy!

  16. Mary Rose
    August 27th, 2010 @ 5:27 am

    BTW, I enjoyed the story about Ronnie. I’m not a cat person at all, though, but can appreciate the patient pursuit of winning back trust. I’m glad you did what you did and just left him alone for awhile until he got used to being inside a house again. Poor little guy!