I Am A Cat Enabler

I have a calico cat named Pounce. Pounce came to us straight from a box; she was the last kitten in a box that an 8th grader had brought to school, and my husband is a sucker for a cute face. He brought her home about a month after we got married, and she has been living with us ever since.

And she is insane. Crazy with Cheez-Whiz. Cuckoo for Cocoa-Puffs.

Did I mention that she's crazy?

Pounce didn't start out insane. For a long time, she was just your average cat, but a bit more skittish than the others in the house. She wasn't all that keen about the outdoors, but she would head out there in the mornings with the other cats to eat some grass and check out the world.

Then something happened that was more than Pounce's brain could process.

She stopped coming downstairs at all. For two years.

She hissed at everyone and everything.

She spent days under the bed in our room, and only came out to eat and use the litter box.

Apparently Pounce's normal self is just plain crazy. We got used to it.

She still hisses at my son, Zane, like he's new to the house. Every day. Zane hisses back(I'm so proud), and Pounce runs and hides under the bed for several hours.

Pounce hisses, stalks, and chases Zena, our kitten. She randomly whacks Morris, my 16 year old cat, in the head. While she will come downstairs now, if there's any sort of strangeness, like a toy that wasn't there before, she will head back upstairs to hide.

And she will no longer go out onto the patio to eat grass. She will stand in front of the door and meow, but when I open the door for her, she just stands there, her pupils wide open with fear.

So what do I do, as a good kitty-mama? Do I get coax her outside with treats and reward her for her bravery? No.

I go outside and pick blades of grass and bring them back into the house. Then I hold them in my hand so Pounce can pretend that she is outside eating grass.

Yep. I am buying into her crazy.