Shotgun Gator Kitty Sidekick

Sassy napping on the Gator seat

Today was the first day that Sassy has trusted me enough to actually stay in my lap while I'm driving the Gator. Why is this significant? Because she has wanted to ride with me since she arrived here but has been too scared. She sleeps on the Gator seat, follows my every move when I'm outside, and stands with her back legs on my feet every time I end up standing in one place for more than a few seconds. She's a needy drooly kitty who will jump into every vehicle you're in, follow you like a dog (hell, better than OUR dog!) and leap onto your shoulders or climb up your leg with super-sharp Claws Of Death when you're least expecting it. Now, ask her to catch a mouse and you're insulting her.

Sassy lounging in the wash stall

She's here for eye candy only. She is the Superior Siamese Barn Kitty. She does not work for her supper unless you consider her career is modeling. Catarina, the poofy long haired Fabio-looking blindingly white cat with calico patches is the unlikely hunter of the bunch. While she looks like she should be going down a models' runway at the latest Cat Fancy show and winning in the Housecat division due to her stunningly soft and starchily clean long coat, she's the more industrious of the duo. She prefers to don a construction cap and grab her lunch pail every morning and embark on her journey through the plains of the Serengeti (better known as our backyard and the adjoining forest behind the pasture) while Sassy lounges in her cat bed eating bon-bons in her housedress and trailer park tiara in the barn or curls up in the barrel that we store our trailer cover in in our shed. Catarina then brings the spoils of the hunt to our front door and prominently displays them on the doormat, to which we greet with an obligatory CRUNCH and often a scream as we step on the carcass in our hurry to leave the house in the morning. I can't tell you how many mornings I've spent scraping vole goo off of the soles of my shoes after having walked the dog....

Pepper riding on a round bale

Pepper prowling in the backyard

Pepper walking the plank

But I digress. Sassy is a sweet soul who reminds me so much of my beloved Pepper. She came to us after Pepper passed last year and her mannerisms, drooly kitty-ness, her tendency to be fearlessly underfoot and inconveniently in the way whilst still maintaining her cuteness is surprisingly similar. Now Pepper used to LOVE the Gator. She was an adrenaline junkie kitty who LOVED riding shotgun in the Gator, tried to constantly make herself a hood ornament on our cars, ATV and eventually the Gator while we drove around the farm. She rode shotgun with me everywhere. If she wasn't hanging on to the passenger seat, head up and wind blowing through her fur, she was firmly attached to my lap, claws dug in, while I was driving. She even hopped onto anything in motion-I snapped a pic while she was in her glory perched on a round bale we were towing with the Gator.
She climbed rafters that were insanely high and napped on birds nests. If she were a human, I guarantee she would be mountain biking down steep cliffs and jumping out of airplanes. Maybe a race car driver? Who knows.

Sassy insisting on helping me put up lights

So ever since Sassy arrived and "felt" like Pepper, she's gazed longingly at the Gator when I drive it. She would sleep on the seat and clearly want to stay in it with me whenever I drove it, but fear would take over and she would leap out of the moving Gator within seconds. For a while, it was an event for her to stay in the Gator when it was started. She would follow it, trotting beside it until I got to my destination. But no matter how gentle I drove it she would eventually lose trust and jump out. So, today was the first day I've ever scooched her over into the passenger seat and had her stay in the Gator while driving. She climbed onto my lap, dug her claws in and drooled while I drove around the farm.

Sassy actually climbed the ladder right next to me

It may not mean much, but when you feel the honest trust of an animal while they're clearly fighting every instinct that tells them to flee and they make a conscious choice to stay with you, it's a special thing. I'm glad to say that I have a Shotgun Gator Kitty Sidekick again.

Fearlessly Following Felines

We had a nice weather day last weekend and I decided to take advantage of it by working with Tiki in hand for a few minutes.  After she was done with her training session I was walking her back to her field when she decided she wanted to check out a flatbed trailer that was parked in the backyard.  Being a bright day, the barn cats Catarina and Sassy were sunning themselves on the wooden floor of the trailer.  Tiki, ever curious, wanted to check it out. She gently pulled on the lead rope, straining to walk over to the trailer.  She craned her neck out, flared her nostrils and blew at the wooden beast.  Since horses have very poor sight when it comes to anything right between their eyes in front of them and right in front of their noses, she startled herself when she craned down to sniff at the trailer and smacked nose-first right into the handle.  She jumped straight up into the air about six inches and landed with her feet planted wide and eyes even wider.  She snorted and tried again, bumping into the handle a second time with less fanfare.


I couldn't help it, I started laughing at her confusion.  After petting her and telling her that it was ok, she seemed to shrug her shoulders and started eating the grass next to the wheel.  Then she noticed the cats, who had woken up with all the commotion and were now trolling about on the deck of the trailer.  She realized they were SO much closer to her and more attainable than normal due to their elevated status on a raised wooden surface.  This completely fascinated her, and she gazed at them longingly, craning her head and neck over the edge of the trailer to try to reach them.  This was cute for about 30 seconds, until I realized that her completely fearless self was poised to just hop up about 2 feet into the air to join them.  I looked back and saw her positioning her hind legs underneath her body and starting to lift a shoulder.  Having taught her how to jump in hand and how to start the spanish walk, this would have been a cakewalk.  But in my mind I saw a flash of the future, with her sliding her hooves across the deck of the trailer in a cartoon-like banana peel type of fashion, trying to stop her forward momentum (she puts a LOT of gusto into her jumps and tends to fly through the air twice as high and far as she planned) and then scrambling off the other side, probably cutting herself on the sharp metal corners in the process.  So I quickly said NOOOOOOOO and backed her away from the trailer.  She went back to quietly nibbling on grass like nothing happened and her feline friends returned to their napping state.

I am forever floored by how curious and fearless she is.  She often looks at me to see my level of concern about anything, and so long as I am calm, she is calm and willing to go anywhere and try anything.  She'll walk on any surface, hop up on or over anything I present her with, and generally just doesn't blink an eye about most things.  If she does startle, she hits the end of the lead rope but really doesn't pull or do anything stupid anymore.  I don't feel like I signed up for an impromptu skiing lesson when working her in open spaces anymore.  There was a time when she was young that she figured out how to turn her head away, take control of the lead rope and knew the exact angle to lock her neck and pull that would make hindquarter disengagement impossible by pulling in the exact opposite direction from the handler.  Thankfully, we've worked through that and now have softness and give when being worked with.  She naturally yields now and will step over as necessary and disengage her hind when necessary.