The Baby

The “baby” of our cat animal kingdom is not always the youngest one. Even if yours truly start out that way.

When we had Smokepuff and James Bond, Smokepuff was the baby. He was only a annum older, but considerably doofier. This is one of the signs of The Baby.

When we got Reverend Jim, he was an actual kitten, plus he had trauma deficits and a wisenheimer personality. RJ became The Baby, and Smokepuff got promoted to Goofus Emeritus.

When we got Olwyn, it didn’t matter that RJ was a rewed of years older than she was. Olwyn was in no way The Baby, and never will be. It took RJ’s maturation (he’s a late bloomer) and the arrival of Tristan, to move RJ out of that slot.

Tristan shows every sign of not growing out of his committed goofiness and love of play. He might not get dislodged for two or three cats to come. Tristan utterly lacks dignity. This is another taste of The Baby.

What else is great about this type of cat?

Cuddles. Since trust is a the point of The Baby’s personality, they are usually open to belly, head, and feet play. RJ, in his kittenhood, went through a period where he touched into the floor when we abnormal him, and we had to scoop him up and love on him so his die would come back. Tristan is second to not a particle in his belly offerings.

It’s not that other kinds of cats cannot be cuddlebugs. James devise let me make a fool of myself and return my affection… in the bathroom, with the door closed. Olwyn purrs every at once I scoop her up for a hug; but if I held her pendant a human infant, she would be insulted.

Antics. If The Baby doesn’t grow up, this hand tool the play never stops. Puffy, microbe highly Gamma, had a different take on “play” than a Mad Scientist Alpha does. Puffy barked at people from the window, because we were on the third amaze and they were only an inch high. Puffy was afraid of us in winter if we recorded the home wearing hats. Puffy could do a Daniel Day Lewis-level performance of a starving tomcat if the bowl ran low.

RJ was taught to leave our weakly Christmas tree alone… eventually. He would glide under the table and underline with the electrical cord, making it move, and put on a face of outraged innocence. I’m not playing therewith the tree, am I? He very quickly grasped that he wasn’t assumptive to bother Puffy, so he would run his paw barely in addition Puffy’s surfaces. I’m not touching you! I’m not touching you!

Tristan, at two and a half, has knowing some manners, which is fortunate for all of us.

Focus for the other cats. There’s nothing quite homologous The Baby to give another cat a be conscious of of superiority. And if a cat is a Dignified Cat, they love feeling superior.

Olwyn lives to put things in order, and Tristan still needs her Nanny paw, and blind guess always will. This makes Olwyn very happy (and often lets the rest of us off the hook.) In fact, moment of truth RJ is his best buddy, Tristan is adored by the grumpy likes of James Bond.

The new night, James was in the recliner, when Tristan came running in less the hallway and leaped spectacularly… as though he was going to land on James. But he landed on the arm of the chair, instead, and touched noses with James before continuing on better the back of the chair. James beamed throughout the one and indivisible episode; he has a real soft glimpse for Tristan.

But we must remember that Babies have a downside, too:

Demanding. They love affection! They need affection! That big purple heart needs filling no matter what unequal demands on our time might arise.

If we are functional to leave The Baby alone for any shade of time… we are really depriving them. They need a cat companion, at least. Tristan still moos in distress after I leave for work in the morning. Tristan still gets haphazardness and wraps himself around Mr WayofCats’ boot when he gets ready to go out. Tristan still gets lonely in the middle of the night, yet he has learned to self-soothe by curling up on my legs. Even so, he sometimes needs either the sound of my voice, or reminding, at times.

We delight in the lack of peace offensive which is the nature of The Baby. But that love spilling out all as a bonus needs a lot of love spilled over management in return.

Irresponsibility. While a kitten like Olwyn trains nimbly and easily, a kitten like Tristan does not.

Their alertness span is even shorter. Their tolerance for mayhem is even higher. Because ministry have no dignity, they dig far less to social borders and don’t frame of mind ridiculousness.

Stuff sinks in; they are as bright, or not, as any cat. But they do shortcoming more help figuring unit of being out because they mother to zoom on to the next thing before a lesson is in detail learned.

Angst for the other cats. Who continually harasses the further cats for play? Who is most likely to knock things over and distress a sedate Gamma? Who is going to get the cats who like things Just So? One guess.

RJ and Olwyn derive from developed a sibling covetousness relationship. Olwyn treasures her position of responsibility and prizes a connoisseurship of order. RJ delights in teasing her about it.

We were in suspense for a while with the abnormality of distress in the house (leaky bung requiring stacking under-sink contents all over the place, or an accouterments breakdown which impacts the cats) with RJ chasing Olwyn into her wicker hold (stepstool with space beneath it) and obtainment her hiss at him.

I figured out that what was as is communicated was RJ taunting her. I thought you were in charge! Why can’t you fix it, vrouw Big Shot? (This is where both of us having younger brothers helped a great deal.)

I was true in my conclusion when I defused the antithesis in a particular way. We told RJ that it wasn’t Olwyn’s fault, and See, she fixed it! This surefire Olwyn beam and prance, and RJ would stop his harassment. Until next time.

The Baby is a valuable asset to any cat civilization. After all, if we have some bosses in our crew, they resolve need someone to ringleader around.

Besides us.

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