Sansa the parrot-cat
Since I was a boy I’ve had lots of cats. I wouldn’t say I was a cat lover exactly, but I do like cats and find them amazing animals to watch and study.
When I was about 12, on my way home from school one day, I found a couple of kittens that had been abandoned at the local wheat bins. It was a known thing that some farmers did. Bring unwanted kittens into town and drop them around the wheat bins. I guess the general theory behind this was that there would be lots of mice to be found around the wheat bins, and, secondarily, maybe some townie would find them and adopt them.
Well on this day I adopted two. I stuffed them in my school bag (there was plenty of room) and took them home. I begged my mum to let me keep them even though she assured me that they would run away. But they didn’t. They adopted us and stayed around. And my dad, who was definitely not a cat lover for too many reasons to go into here, even came to enjoy them. He used to call them ‘circus cats’ because of all the tricks they did. But as any cat owner would know, cats are just full of many ‘tricks’ to amuse their people.
Since then my wife and I have had a number of cats. Basically I think we have had one or two cats around almost since we moved into our first house a lifetime ago.
Well just recently our house cat stopped breathing, which always has a rather disastrous outcome. Just before Jazz went to cat heaven the wife and I gave the thumbs-up to my son’s fiancé getting a kitten. At our recommendation she got a Burmese kitten. If you can believe what you read they are people-friendly (as much as any cat is), smart, and generally don’t roam (too far, too often). Also they are on the low-side when it comes to being allergenic.
The fiancé has named the kitten Sansa. I think it’s a great name and it complies with the rule of two syllables for a cat or dog name.
However we have discovered a rather odd personality trait of Sansa. I think she thinks she is a parrot.
Whenever she gets the chance she gets onto your shoulder.
If you walk too close to her climbing totem she will launch herself through the air to lob on your shoulder. While she does it with the greatest of care and minimum use of claws, it can be marginally startling to suddenly find a kitten on your shoulder.
On occasion she will even go from the ground, up your jeans and jacket onto your shoulder and then just sit there, balancing as you walk.
When I am sitting at the kitchen table working on my notebook she will often go up my tummy and onto my shoulder, somehow fit herself into my neck-back-shoulder formation, and take a cat nap.
Here is a picture of Sansa the cat-parrot perched on my son’s shoulder going for walk.
Obviously she likes being up high and she loves people. Being a cat-parrot sort of fulfills both requirements.
Currently she is small and light. Hopefully as she gets bigger and heavier she will get over this as I don’t fancy a grown cat going up my back onto my shoulders. That might involve significantly more deployment of claws.
