My family alerted me to this late last night as I was still busy doing the tshirt accounting in my room, in between typing lecture notes for a new semester AND replying emails!
Apparently, there was an impending feline war outside in the living room.
Come quickly, come and watch, they said.
Tiger had just come through the window, back from a midnight stroll, and the two alphas, Cow and Bunny, decided to "have some fun", staking out an ambush on Tiger, from both sides.
Tiger is currently my mildest and gentlest cat. We call him "Gandhi" because he has never hissed at anyone, much less picked a fight, in all his life. Whenever Cow and Bunny threatened to attack him, he would just stay still and close his eyes tight. (If I close my eyes, maybe you'd go away, and most of the time, the attacker does.)
Just the other day, my husband saw (and heard!) Bunny literally screaming into Tiger's face but Tiger just closed his eyes. He did not budge at all.
That's the way Gandhi, I mean, Tiger, responds to any hostile situation.
Tiger is completely still. He is totally aware of the impending ambush. He dares not move. But he is probably hungry and wants his supper in the kitchen, so as hunger beckons, courage arises, and he gets up...and tries to walk past the two potential attackers. Slowly, slowly, step by step...totally aware, totally mindful.
Suddenly, Bobby comes to the rescue. The old dog walks out from the kitchen and intervenes.
Hooray, Bobby! As blind as he is, his sixth sense must have told him that Tiger was in danger, so he came in front of Tiger and stood in between the two attackers. Tiger quickly walks towards the kitchen.
I may be blind, but I know what's brewing, ok? Don't try it, you two.
The two look away, as though they were merely sitting there with no naughty intentions.
But wait, it's not safe yet.
There is a second line of attack, it's Indy.
Indy intercepts Tiger and threatens to attack him now.
This time, I intervened. Stop it, Indy. Let Tiger go.
Tiger gets his supper and goes into my room after that.
It's still safer here...with my best and most reliable friend.
Thus ends this episode of "The Feline Art of War" in which an impending war was prevented because of canine and human interception.
He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious. Sun Tzu
Now, updates...here's an anonymous commenter's version to the same story.
Ha! Ha! That is the 2-legged humans' humanised story of the situation.
Now the 4-legged one, from studying the subtle body language, position of ears, eyes and tails of all concerned:
Bunny and Cow are sitting securely in their claim territory.
Tiger walks in and has to pass through somebody's territory, so he offers through body language that he is non-confrontational and moves in a slow, meek, non-threatening manner.
His ears position indicates his fear as to whether the other two territorials will feel antagonised and not let him pass through. He takes pain to indicate through his body language that he in non-confrontational and submissive.
Bobby picks up the tension (animals have very good 6th sense)and becomes the peacemaker. I have seen senior cats do this many times. My senior cat will rise from this resting place and go towards the scene and headbutt those that are aggressive, making room for the submissive.
Indy picks up Tiger's fear. Fear in any animal will put others in defensive and ready to strike back in case the fearful animal strikes out wildly in fear.
Also, fearful animals often get bullied and chased out, it is the way of the animal kingdom's tough survival laws.
Put a fearful, panicky animal into a cage with other otherwise calm animals and you can see everyone bristle up instantly because of the huge tension from the fearful animal.
We sure have lots to learn, don't we? Thank you for sharing!
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