READER’S DIGEST
July• 2019 | 83cornered. When I picked him up, she
attacked us both. In that moment, I
realised I hadn’t brought a fur baby
into my home, but a wild animal.
The veterinary world calls it ‘re-
directed aggression’, a sort of kitty
mental illness that triggers sudden
spurts of violence in territorial cats.
Drunk guys punch holes in walls;
cats tear at the luxurious fur of their
once-friends. Studies show that it’s
almost entirely unique to indoor
cats in small households inhabited
by two or fewer humans.
The vet explained to us that
aggression hormones were pent up
from the sight of all those strays,
plus several new neighbours’ cats
on the balconies surrounding her,
and possibly the one-time stench of
hundreds of show cats on Orwell. It
was inevitable that she would snap.
Cats aren’t here to make friends,
and pageants cannot undo their pri-
mal tendencies. “Cats today have
essentially the same senses, the
same brains and the same emotional
repertoire as their wildcat forebears,”
readsCat Sense. “As far as we know,
all that has changed in t heir brains is
a new ability to form social attach-
ments to people.”
This may be nature, but Janae and
I weren’t ready to accept it. Even
after friends said they’d consider
adopting our wild girl for the emo-
tional and physical safety of both
cats, we couldn’t give up on Dar-
win. We’ve medicated her with an-
ti-anxieties. We’ve invested in cans
of Feliway, a synthetic pheromone
that mimics a calming hormone that
mother cats excrete through their
milk to keep their kittens at peace.
Another visit to the vet revealed
that she had several gum lesions
and cavities, so we had five teeth
removed, hoping that her out-
bursts were caused by physical, not
emotional, pain. She came home
with a swollen face and saintliness
like never seen before – until the
morphine faded.
These days, Darwin’s redirected
aggression still flares up, but never
so extremely and never for long.
Something has changed, but I’m not
entirely sure it’s her. It turns out that
Orwell has finally started defending
himself. When she growls, he
growls. When she swats, he punches
back. He stands his ground and she
backs off. Our boy is finally living up
to his name.DA RW IN GROW LED
AND YOWLED, THEN
TURNED TO ORWELL
AND SAW NOT HER
LONG-TIME FRIENDBUT THE DEVIL
FROM HAZLITT.NET (JULY 25, 2016) © 2016, OMAR MOUALLEM.