Written by Nina Earle
Salem is a weird cat. This comes from some one who is not a cat person. I do not have very much interaction with cats. My childhood was full of my mom telling stories of them biting her and the skittish cat my grandfather had. His cat, though barley counts, as a cat since no one ever saw her. Cocoa was a tiny thing, who was really anxious and did not like anyone that was not my Grandfather. She would hide under his bed the second that someone entered the house. It did not matter if it was him or someone else. Only when she heard the noise of a can opening did Cocoa leave her hiding spot. He spoiled that cat but I never had a lot of interaction with her. All last year my interactions with Salem were simple. I did not want to step on them, and walked up the stairs that they hang around everyday. I had a few close cases but in the end I didn’t trip over them at all which was nice.
So it was odd when one day in the last week the weirdest interaction happened. I decided to do some work while sitting outside and so I sat under the patio in front of Maxy. With in the minute of my sitting down Salem comes up to my table and using chairs jumps on. Not only did Salem come to my table, but they without even a hello lied down on my laptop carrier. There was no cautiousness in his movements at all but a dismissive air to him. He turned his back to me and my laptop and sat on the bag. Within minutes of coming over he moved into an lying position from his sitting. For ten minutes, Salem just lied there on my bag. He only moved after someone else came up to the table and pated him. Was this a one time thing? This odd interaction or is it a normal Salem thing? To come over to a person and not want interactions but to be happy to just sit. I think that there is something that people should think about when approaching Salem. Is he really a people cat or just likes getting fed so he deals with constant attention that he does not want.
