The day I saw Mom with the wild cat was
the day I started to look closer at my mom and study her movements. I realized that she was not just another
pretty face. Her face told you a lot of
stories.
When Mom moved her ears up and straining
forward, I realized that she was alert, excited, and aroused. If this was accompanied by a Play Bow, I knew
she was excited about play.
However, if her mouth was open with teeth
bared and lips pulled tightly back, her arousal was anger and aggression.
I loved Mom’s face and discovered the many
messages it could give me. When I saw
her face with the jaw relaxed and the eyes that were blinking and soft, I knew
she was happy with me. Squinty eyes were
happy eyes. The whale eye, which was an eye that looked mostly white, was a
danger signal. It occurred when Mom
would have her nose pointed at a valuable possession, like a piece of food, but
her eye was still looking at me. It was
an indication that she was protecting something and would bite if that
something was touched.
If the teeth are shown and the face is
wrinkled, it is a message of warning or correction. Usually, Mom would then grow still, and her
ears would be drawn back. When the lips
are pulled tightly back or if a growl sound was made, I knew I needed to act
small and be submissive. With my tail
tucked under my belly and my body lowered, I would reach up and forward and
give Mom a lick. My ears would be drawn
back and look like they are pinned to my head.
I would express an attitude of appeasement that said, “Please don’t harm
me. I mean you no harm.”
When Mom was relaxed, her tail would be in
a neutral position, sometimes swinging gently.
There would be no body tension.
Her face would be free of wrinkles or tension lines. The front legs are not braced, and the back
is not hunched or rounded. Her ears
would be floppy and relaxed.
Whenever I play with my littermates, the
game I love the most is chase. One of us
would begin the chase. The one being
chased will run, zigzag, and hide behind a bush or tree. We would take turns being chased or doing the
chasing. Sometimes we combine the chase
with a pounce. The large rocks around
our den were fun to climb on. We would
often pounce and get others off balance.
Many of our games, including the prey-predator game, would contain a
role reversal option.
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With her permission, I will be serializing a chapter a week, on this blog, the material from this novel by Helen A. Bemis, published by Outskirts Press and available through amazon.com:
As her editor and coach, I aided Helen through my WriteYourBookWithMe.com endeavor.
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