Smacky must have had a horrible fight last week. One day, I forget when, in the wee early hours of the morning, he came limping back home after being gone for a day and a half. He immediately polished off all the food and most of the water I put out for him, and then curled up in a dark corner of the apartment and slept.
He would tolerate me being around, and occassionally would even climb up into my lap, but if I tried to pick him up he’d yowl and claw at me. I didn’t feel any broken bones, though, just scabs across his chest. Bad sign, if an enemy got to his chest in a fight; it means he was on his back, probably. I’m guessing he lost that fight.
He mostly avoided going outside for a while.
Then, when he asked, I let him outside again Saturday morning, and he disappeared again until last night. Not limping quite as bad as the time before, but I still think he lost the fight. He looked… odd. I couldn’t put my finger on what had changed, though.
He kept head-butting me, and pushing his head against my hand for petting – but if I actually touched his left ear, he’d shiver and shake his head and pull away. I tried looking down inside to see if there was any blood or something stuck in there but he simply wouldn’t let me.
That’s when I noticed that his ears were flattened out, almost pushed back, like a cat does when they’re cornered or frightened. He wasn’t acting scared, they weren’t that far back, but flattened out like that it gave him the cat-equivalent of a scowl.
He was super hungry again, so I fed and watered him (it’s been very hot so we’re both going through a lot of water), and let him rest on my lap while I listened to the iPod and read for a bit. I felt sympathy for him and didn’t shoo him off because it was too hot. I had to carefully move him aside when I had to get up to change the laundry (yeah, doing laundry sucks in the heat but it had to be done), and the second or third time I did that he’d had enough. He walked into the kitchen and fell over onto the linoleum, soaking in the coolness of the plastic.
That’s when I realized that Smacky is looking more and more like Bucky Katt every day… the ears back expression is almost identical.
Be careful what you name your cat; it will affect their personality more than you will imagine.