Catstory #8 : Charlie

By Nora O.

We've never had an indoor cat before because my parents were against it. Charlie didn't start out as one, we just didn't have a choice. I know it sounds unbelievable, but sometimes I dream of the future, it is completely random. Just before we took the kitty from its original home, I had a dream where two dogs were mauling a cat. Our dogs, because we had two - completely harmless souls. But the kitty, just as the one in my dream, didn't think so. He didn't have any contact with dogs since he was born so he was terrified and totally depressed every time I tried to bring them together and it was even getting worse. Because of this Charlie remained indoors and hence the name, which actually means "coward".

Charlie is basically my younger brother's cat too - he always wanted a ginger cat, probably because he was a big fan of Garfield when he was little. His friends had a ginger kitty from a stray cat and my brother's friends first thought he's a male so they named him Adolf. But when Adolf gave birth to 3 little kitties, it was already too late to change the cat’s name because everybody was accustomed with “Adolf”.

He's afraid of storms, hair-driers and he basically thinks that dogs are the reincarnations of werewolves. He doesn't like when I'm with my dogs. Nearly every time he meows loudly and his fur all puffed up, he’s clearly afraid - but he fears mostly for me. He cries until I go inside with him, then he shakes himself and gets calm again.
I can't stand behind him when he's in the open window, because he still thinks that I'm going to throw him out (we live on the upper story of a house by the way). So he's clearly a coward.

(All three pictures are taken by Peter Lovas, the former owner of Charlie. )

Otherwise he's a quiet and chill cat, he has a very nice personality and tries not to wake me up at night. I have to confess that sometimes I'm a bit rough and demanding of him, because I was a dog person for decades. It's not something that you shed off easily, my brother on the other side is much more understanding of him. Charlie likes how he treats him better, but after all it's me who takes care of him. Charlie spends more time with me because he isn't allowed to go to my brother's room.

Another funny thing about Charlie is that he is afraid of baby animals. We have bunnies, rabbits and kittens. We had a female calico kitten named Roo for a few months -unfortunately she was hit by a cat last year- and Charlie was in dread of her: he hissed and run every time they'd met. The kitten got the picture and was always giving him a chase.

Thanks for reading !