And finally...

This is a cool article about a shelter that lets you play with the cats ONLINE.

Adoptions are up, btw.

Now, many strange and false things are said about cats (gotta bulk this post up). One of the strangest is that cats aren't social animals. This is certainly not true! Cats aren't pack animals like dogs, but they are social. One way you can tell is by simply counting up the many ways they have of showing affection and bonding with each other. Humans have more, probably... but that's because we can bond and show affection with small talk, and cats generally can't.

With cats, though, it's all body language. They might groom each other (these kittens I have always prefer that method, and I often come across them licking each other's ears, stomachs, tails, and, on multiple occasions, private parts), sleep together, butt heads (I've seen head butting between kitten and mama that is amazingly perfunctory, as though the kitten wanted to say "yup, I love you, but food counts more!" and get right down to the nursing!), play with each other (you can tell it's playing because nobody gets hurt and they spend an amazing amount of time setting up their pounces), walk against their friend and brush sides with each other (this only works with friends. I've seen cats do it with other cats that tolerated but didn't altogether approve of them, and it ended with a swat on the head), share food with each other, and (usually with kittens and their mothers - I've seen kittens continue to do this even after they were quite large) walk under the other cat's chin and brush their tails there.

Non-social animals don't need so many ways to bond with each other. Social animals do. And of course your cats modify this behavior to deal with you - they groom you as gently as they can manage (but there's too much of a good thing, and if you start to get a rash, make them stop!), they run between your legs so you trip, they play catch-the-mouse with your feet, and leave mice on your pillow.

The whole point of that commentary is to say that if you can, it's usually better to have two or three cats instead of just one. Cats like company, in general. (Unless they were raised alone, in which case... probably not.) I'd like to give these kittens away in two groups instead of to five homes, but that probably won't happen.

The other thing you hear even those who should know better say is that you can't train cats, or that it's very difficult. This is nonsense. Training an animal is mostly communication, and we KNOW cats can communicate with ("train") us. This one I have runs in front of me to lead me here or there, or to ensure I give her food or water or whatever she wants. She knows how to call so we let her in, and she knows how to ask for snuggles. So if she can communicate with me, I can do the same with her.

Every single cat I've ever had learned how to come when called. This is basic, and I never really trained them to do so. Never used treats or any method. Just, when they started walking or I first met them I clicked my tongue at them and tapped my fingers with each other or on the ground. This got their attention, and if they came even a little bit close to me I pet them on the head and rubbed their ears. And pretty soon even the slowest kitten figured it out. Shaking a box of dry food works too, but this is less silly. And it didn't take any effort at all to teach them this!

This cat we've got learned very quickly that if I clap my hands and point, she needs to move. I never did anything harsher than pick her up and take her away from where she's not allowed to be.

She learned very fast she's not allowed in my bathroom (because, due to poor design, it gives access for her to the downstairs bathroom and she terrorizes THEIR cat). All I had to do was close the door and carry her out if she came in. Now she looks at it and doesn't go near. We're working on "she's not allowed upstairs", but this isn't helped by the fact that the children, in contrast, are slow to learn "don't reward her for coming upstairs".

None of this is very difficult. I've never taught a cat any silly tricks like people teach dogs, but if I wanted to and the cat didn't mind, it'd be just as easy. Wait for them to get it even a little right, and then reward them when they do. So long as your cat likes you, it's not as hard as some people think. Bit silly for tricks, but there are basic things you can teach any cat if you have patience.

(And some things you can't. If you're in the habit of leaving your meat out, your cat WILL eat it. Your own silly fault for leaving it out!)

It never rains but it pours, right?

Now that Evangeline is reading harder books, I'm noticing something interesting, and I don't know what to make of it.

Evangeline rarely reverses letters in a word. Sometimes she'll write "tow" for "two" or "on/no" for "no/on", and she does have trouble with "saw/was", but in general, what she sees is what she reads, and if she gets it wrong she at least tends to get the first sounds right (unless she turns to guessing, and then she goes on meaning, making it easy to tell she guessed!)

Edit: That is, she rarely reverses when reading. She does sometimes, as I noted below and above, do it when spelling... but it's hard to tell sometimes what exactly is going on.

However, I'm noticing that she often switches the order of words. So if the sentence reads "Am I going outside?" she will very often automatically switch it to say "I am going outside", possibly because statements are more common than questions. And if you point it out, she'll repeat the error until you literally break up the sentence for her.

She also has trouble reading words out of context. This is so bad that her teacher thinks she's not nearly as good a reader as she is, probably, I realize, because she was assessed by having her read words off a chart, and Evangeline doesn't really do that. I mean, she can, but it doesn't seem easy for her. She doesn't need pictures, but she needs the words to be in sentences to read them.

Now, here's what I know. I know dyslexia runs in her dad's family. I know that learning disabilities can be very well hidden by effective coping strategies - especially by bright children. And I know Eva sometimes, in writing, reverses the order of letters (carefully sounding out "you" but writing "uoy", probably because she started off saying the word and then writing the letter that is called yoo!) and their shapes (normal at this age to write your 5s backwards or to confuse your bs and ds). But I've never yet in my life heard of dyslexics, or anybody, switching the order of words in a sentence! Reversing the order of letters or jumbling up the sounds, I've heard of that. But shifting around words in a sentence to make a new sentence, and not even realizing it? That's new to me.

Am I jumping the gun here and worrying about nothing? Or am I on the right track here?