How friendly are your furry masters?

We have three cats, all with very different attitudes to life... Scout
and Silver are littermates but their temperaments are WORLDS apart.
Scouty is incredibly skittish and timid and she runs a mile when
anyone comes to the door. When she first came to us she used to bolt
and hide under the bed if anyone even walked PAST, but she's gained a
lot of confidence in the last year... now she stays in her 'safe
place', which is the craftroom, and where guests don't usually come.
She's even got brave enough that when our landlord was here last week
she poked her nose out into the livingroom to see what he was doing! I
was so proud to see her there, even for a couple of minutes! She hates
being handled even by us, so there's no way on earth she'll ever let
anyone else pet her.

Silver, her sister, is a lot more laidback and relaxed. She'll let you
handle her and she comes to be cuddled and when somebody new comes to
the house she waits until they're settled and then she checks them out
from the doorway and decides if she wants to deign to share her
presence with them... then she'll come and sit on my husband's lap or
on the coffeetable or the cat tree and watch from across the room. And
if its somebody she particularly likes (like our landlord) she'll go
and lounge close by them and say 'pet me please'.

Tessie is our baby and she's incredibly gregarious by nature. If
somebody knocks on the door she RUNS - not away from it, but towards
it. She jumps up on the back of the couch to look out the front window

jmcquown...

Persia is my only cat. She hides when people come into the apartment, but
if someone knocks on the door, like the UPS guy, she's curious about it and
will approach the door to see what the racket is about. Of course, if I
invited the person inside she'd be out of there faster than I can type
Persia :D

I'm the only person she will socialize with. It took me a while to convince
my brother I even *have* a cat. He teased me that I just set out a bowl of
kibble to make it look like I have a cat :) She came out from hiding once,
briefly and he said, "Oh, so you really *do* have a cat!" and of course when
she heard his voice she vamoosed again.

The only reason John knows I have a cat is he and I picked her up at the vet
once after a trip and I let him carry her out to his truck in her carrier.
Once we got back to my apartment, I unzipped her Sherpa bag; she leaped out
("I'm home!") then she saw him and stared at him, wide-eyed for about 20
seconds, then ran to hide in the closet LOL

But I'm her meowmie. She chose me and therefore I must be okay with her :)

and see who's there, and if the door is open for more than a few
minutes she'll be out of it! I chased her down the landing a few times
before I realised her sneakiness. So now when she runs to the couch I
pick her up and hold her under my arm so she can meet the visitor but
not run away. If a visitor is here long enough to sit down, the odds
are high that she'll be climbing all over them inside five minutes...

Christina Websell...

I only have two. KFC & Boyfie. They are very different. Kitty used to be
shy but she isn't now. If she can actually be bothered to stir herself from
her beanbag in front of the kitchen fire she will climb all over a visitor,
purring up a storm. Some like it, some don't. If they don't I just pick
her up, put her back in the kitchen and shut the connecting door.
Boyfie is a different kettle of fish entirely. He can be relaxing on the
settee or asleep near the fire but if he hears the doorbell he will hurtle
towards the back door and ask to be let out immediately. Sometimes I let
him out and sometimes I don't. It depends on the visitor. If they are cat
lovers and have cats themselves I make him stay in, he can stay in the
kitchen if he wants and no-one will scare him there but I'd like him to hear
us talking in a friendly way and realise there's nothing to be scared about
if a friend visits.
If they don't particularly like cats, I let him go out.

It was funny but sad when N stayed here several times. She *loves* cats, is
gentle, and has some of her own. She thought Boyfie was wonderful, it was
not reciprocated ;-)
N is a very early riser, unlike myself. At 6 a.m. Boyfie felt he had to go
out to avoid her. I have no idea why, she's the last person who would hurt
him. She usually went to bed at 9.30ish. At 9.32 Boyfie would meow at the
door to say "can I come in now, has she gone?"

Boyfie is a wonderful cat. He is kind, gentle and polite. No-one sees him
interacting with me, he won't let them, or see kneading and purring his very
small purr which I can hardly hear.

sriddles...

I always thought it was interesting how cats' personalities differ.
My Frank is like your Scouty. He runs under the bed every time the
doorbell rings. I call him my little ghost cat. He's the cat that I
*talk* about, I have pictures of him, but none of my friends have ever
actually seen him :-)

Jeff Mullen...

This is, in fact, why I prefer their company to that of dogs.
Cats not only show a variety of personality traits, they also
show a huge variety of differing aptitudes.

For example, I once had the privalege of dealing with The Fritz.
You may have heard of me from Liz Singh--Fritz was her cat, and
I was merely given the privalege of living alongside him for a
few years, and of providing comfort during its peaceful last
moments.

Fritz was a genius. There is no other way to describe this
towering intellect of a cat. On PBS, during a documentary
on how they broke the codes of the german Enigma machine,
they provided an excellent definition of "genius:" while
an intelligent individual may think things up faster or
make a few inferences, he is still going through the same
thought processes as the rest of us. A genius, however,
is capable of thoughts and ideas that "normal" individuals
will never, never concieve of. And that is the only way
that I can ever describe Fritz.

From swiping the catfood box and then opening it with
ONE SCRATCH, PARALLEL TO THE TOP OF THE BOX AND ONE INCH
DOWN to imitating the "red alert" claxon from the Starship
Enterprise to communicating with actual language as opposed
to making sounds at the two-legs, this cat never left any
doubt of his status as a master of the mental arts.

Tigger, whom I selected from a litter (mother was siamese,
father came from a good neighborhood), was an athlete.
Mind you, Tigger was intelligent, and could operate light
switches and door handles, but mother nature gave him the
Supercat package, and he lorded it over the neighborhood
dogs for over 15 years. It reached the point where 80-pound
dogs would detour around the yard rather than enter the
terratory of one 10-pound half-siamese cat. Why? Because,
even if you COULD see him where he hid out under the
evergreen trees, he could move so fast that you coudln't
see him anyway. I saw it happen. He was also very
rough-and-tumble. My sister would come up to him and
say, "Tigger, I'm going to ABUUUUUSE you!" and he would
start to purr, knowing all the while that he was going
to be getting another fun roller-coaster ride. (She
lied. I made sure.) :) :) :)

Now, I have Sweetie. Sweetie walked up to me in a library
parking lot and decided that I should be his. He neither
intellectually nor physically gifted, but he is a lover of
great ability. I have a black cat that follows me around the
house, that curls up next to me on couches when I watch
TV or on beds when I sleep. The first word that he came to
understand was "purr," and he has used that word to help
succor me during some of the harder times that I have had
to endure.

To say that I have been blessed would be an understatement.
There never lived a king but who should be jealous of such
a variety of riches as God has chosen to visit upon me in
their time.