Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Kitty Coup

Three and a half years ago Tweak became our first cat. Three months later we got Freak.
Tweak is grey, lean, meowes constantly, is obsessed over kitty krack (cat treats), runs around the house like a wild animal and is paranoid.
Freak is white, fat, never makes any noise, is obsessed over any food, hates to move for anyone, and couldn't give a damn about anything.
Tweak has been the dominant cat since Freak arrived on the scene. Tweak steals the better part of the food (the gravy part of the food package), shoves Freak out of the good seat in the house, and general just beats the crap out of Freak.
A couple of week ago we started to see some change in the pecking order. Freak started to kick Tweak out of the tub to get the good spot for licking the drip from the tap. Freak wouldn't move out of the good seat in the house. And she finally became brave enough to face the front loading washing machine while it was running (her arch nemesis).
Last week it all came to a head. Freak snapped. She had had enough of being the docile, lazy kitty in the house. It was a full on Kitty Coup! It started late in the evening when Tweak did a sneak attack on her. Instead of laying down and taking it, Freak fought back! She yowled! She chased Tweak around the house. She hissed! She puffed up and became three times her size!
Poor Tweak didn't know what to do. Anytime she went near Freak, an all out war ensued! Nothing like this had ever happened before in our house. This went on for 48 hours. Seriously. The first night we hardly got any sleep. Anytime Tweak went into the sight of Freak- Freak would yowl and howl with all of her might. It became so bad that I opted to get out of bed for 3 hours and squirt Freak with a water bottle every time she went into attack mode. But nothing worked. I tried petting her and calming her down- but she wouldn't have any of it. We are unsure what went on during the hours we were at work, but the Kitty Coup was still on when we got home. On the second night, Tweak hid in the bedroom with us while we slept. Anytime she tried to leave, Freak would be waiting for her in the hallway. But finally after 48 hours, things have calmed down.
The pecking order has definitely changed. Freak is now the owner of the best seat in the house and Tweak hasn't even tried to get it back. Freak is strutting around here with more confidence than we have ever seen.
Now what is going to happen when we introduce our baby into this pecking order......
Here are the cats before the Kitty Coup, sharing the best seat in the house. A rare moment that had to be captured.

3 comments:

dkc said...

And people claim Miytro is crazy? Yeah, no.

Jaime said...

Hahaha...great entry. The photo at the end was cute. I like how Tweak and Freak are symmetrical in the way their paws are bent.

I definitely know how it is with 2 cats fighting in the home! As a kid we had a cat named Tiger. About 6 years later, we got Casey. The two hated each other. Eventually Tiger had to be put down and we got a kitten named Abbey, who LOVED Casey but whom Casey despised. It was pretty funny how much Abbey clearly liked Casey. She would try to jump on her sometimes, it was great.

Anyway, I still can't believe how expensive Temptations are there. Kugluktuk even has food mail, doesn't it? People say Rankin is more expensive than other places because we don't have food mail, but $8 for Temptations! I nearly fainted! :)

--Jaime

Anonymous said...

Too funny Kara! I miss having a cat. Ours died not too long after moving up here - she was old and the stress did her in.

I'm sure there's a pet psychologist out there that could explain Freak's coup!