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Pet Photos: Jinx and Dusty | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 inx
and Dusty, AKA "The Kids" are our two kitties. As of
November 2003 Dusty is about four years old, and Jinx is about four
months old.
Dusty had never lived with another kitty, though he'd interacted with others on the patio of Malaya's old apartment, and had gotten along fine. He's fixed, as is the Jinxers, so there's no chemical imbalances to set them off. This means that we have to blame all of Dusty's weird behavior on him, rather than his sex drive. Bad kitty! When Jinx first arrived, still in her kitty carrier, Dusty took one sniff, realized there was a kitty inside, and vanished. He did not emerge from the bedroom for about two days, other than on brief skulking trips to the food bowl or litter box. Jinx, on the other hand, was tiny and overwhelmed by the big apartment, and it took her a couple of days to even realize there was another room at the end of the hallway. A big room with a bed in it and a glowing-eyed Dusty hiding beneath it. By the end of the 2nd day Dusty was regularly creeping out of the bedroom and coming down the hallway to stare at the playing or sleeping Jinx, but he'd not go anywhere near her or sniff at her. She was always the one to initiate contact, and for the first couple of weeks she'd regularly trot up to him, totally friendly and carefree, and when she got close he'd arch his back and hiss and growl, and she'd leap back, all confused and afraid. We kept hoping that Jinx wouldn't lose her friendliness or spirit before Dusty mellowed out; the prospect of two kitties in the same small condo who didn't like each other was not a pleasant one. Fortunately, Dusty got more and more used to Jinx, and stopped growling and hissing at her after a few weeks. As of late November 2003 they're far from best friends, and don't sleep in a pile or anything, but they do play together, taking turns chasing each other around the condo, and they get along pretty well, aside from Dusty's continuing need to bite at Jinx when he spots her sleeping peacefully. More on that below. The interactions between these two felines have been extensively-documented in daily blogs, some of which you can see right here.
More recent photos are added to the bottom of this page, so scroll down to see how things are progressing.
This is from the first week, when Dusty had gotten over being freaked out by Jinx enough to start interacting with her, but before he was comfortable doing so. Jinx was very little and Dusty scared her terribly, at least once she poked at him for long enough to get him riled up enough to chase after her. The line between play and battle was always pretty clear to Dusty, but Jinx wasn't quite sure early on. The terror of running from such a larger animal probably made it all the more fun to play, however. Here he's chased her into the living room and she's scooted into a small opening in the bookshelves that Dusty could never fit through. Not that he tried, he's never really chased her to catch her, and the times he does, he just smacks her around or play bites at her; he's never actually tried to hurt her. Which is lucky for Jinx given how much grief she gives him. The disgusted "what am I chasing this thing for?" look on Dusty's face is what makes this photo for me.
Dusty is just sitting there, bristling a little, but Jinxie is in full on terror mode, ready to fight for her life. Not that it's real smart to do so when your opponent outweighs you about by a factor of five. But who ever said Jinx was smart?
It took several days before they'd even be still in visual range of each other. This was the first time I'd seen them this close when neither of them were looking on the verge of running, and it was probably just because Jinx was on our never-used kitchen table while Dusty was on the chair(s).
This box held a water relaxation machine, and upon removing the machine Jinx decided it would be a fun thing to play in. Amusingly-enough, Dusty agreed, and took to his Jinx-in-the-Box with great gusto. Jinx would stay inside and poke out a paw or two, and Dusty would swat at them and fish his big paw down inside the box as well. Eventually the side flaps fell over so Jinxie was in there with only small slits to look out, and Dusty was up on top looking over the edge and ducking back madly. Jinx started making leaps up and Dusty would paw at her furiously. The humans watching found this so amusing that we put Jinx back in the box after she finally escaped two or three times. We're such good parents.
This is how a lot of their pursuits go, since Jinx is far more nimble and leap-happy, and tends to fly up onto desks, tables, chairs, TVs, etc while Dusty circles below like a carpet shark.
We don't remember what prompted this unheard of display of teamwork, or at least shared passion, but it must have been something pretty interesting. Perhaps a bug.
Dusty sits somewhere and Jinx comes up next to him and lies down. Or else Jinx is already lying there and Dusty comes up next to her. At first there's looking around and perhaps some sniffing by the Dusters, but that soon fails to provide him with sufficient amusement. So he moves to licking, which Jinx enjoys. She'll lean her head back and purr and stretch out, enjoying his rasping tongue. Dusty licks in totally aimless fashion, and at any angle. Sideways, against the grain of the fur, moving up and down her flank or leg, whatever. It's not at all like self-grooming, which always seems to have a purpose and to target a specific area. Sometimes Dusty is content to just lick her a bit and then lie down and relax. But not often. More often the licking is just a warm up, and he'll then start yowling and meowing nonstop, with great gusto and vibrato, and start biting. It's not biting to kill, it's more of a corn on the cob approach where he takes lots of little bites moving up and down Jinx's body. The yowling is the key to his intentions. Often times when he's in the mood to bite he'll see her across the couch and start with the yowling while he's still lying down, and keep yowling as he walks over and starts licking her as a prelude to biting. The funny thing is that Jinx never resists or runs or objects until the biting starts. She has to know what's coming, but until there's actual pain as a part of it she can't be arsed.
One of the best shots of the two of them, from October 2003, when Jinxie was still just a kitten.
The kitties share a moment of mutual insanity as they pursue the mysterious glowing red bug (Laser pointer.)
By the time they'd been together for two months, they'd gotten a lot more chummy, and would occasionally lie together in peace. Jinx wants to be next to Dusty and will often walk over to him when he's sleeping on the couch and plop down on his legs or right in front of him. The fact that this presents her neck for his biting would seem to be a problem, but it doesn't seem to bother her too much.
One of the (very) rare times both kitties occupy the same space without biting and meowing.
One of my favorite shots of the two of them. The expression on Jinx's face is such an invitation to zoomorphism that I find it almost irresistible. Hope, worry, interest, anxiety, friendship, and more, all in a pair of reflecting eyes and an upturned furry little muzzle. Not that I'm anthropomorphizing or anything.
A quick sequence of the kids being kids, photographed in January 2004. The six shots move in order from top left to bottom right. Dusty always begins this sort of play with meowing and licking/biting of Jinxie's chest or back, while his back legs do a strange slow motion sort of kick/struggle for purchase. Jinxie ignores him for a while, then eventually starts to bite back and return his bear hugs, and eventually she runs, or much more often, Dusty gets tired of being bitten and leaps away, leaving Jinxie lying on her back looking after him, wondering where the fun went.
It's a pity there's no audio track on this one, since Dusty keeps up a non-stop chorus of yowling (not that that's very unusual behavior for him) before and during the festivities, while Jinxie contributes nothing more than an occasional fierce little hiss. She's only vocal when she's begging, mostly for food but occasionally for attention. Life and death struggle doesn't seem to be enough to get her voice working.
Here's another sequence from a scuffle in August, 2004. Jinxie is still smaller than Dusty, but she's up to around 9 pounds, while he's down from 15+ to 12 or so. Not too much heavier than her, but he's noticeably larger, even with her much longer fur. And it's just longer fur, neither of them takes this play very seriously, so there's no bristling fur defense mechanism or any other signs of actual fear or murderous aggression. They're playing, they do it numerous times every single day, and they enjoy it. In these photos they're lying flat on a purple Ikea chair with a curved back, and I'm kneeling down in front of the chair. The black thing Jinx's head is on in the second photo is a round footrest, and she looks larger since she's closer to the camera. Dusty always starts in low, on her chest or back, depending if she's lying on her back or side or stomach (usually back, knowing Jinxie), and after 10 or 15 or 30 seconds of his yowling and licking and biting, Jinx eventually sits up and fights back.
Here are a couple of other, larger shots from this exchange.
A nice shot of the kids
sharing the couch. This sort of cohabitation never lasts, except on the
bed in the dark bedroom. And even there, Dusty always starts licking and
meowling before long.
Jinx will lean up
against Dusty, but only by accident. If he's been rolled up like a soft
taco and she can confuse him with the furniture, for instance.
Silhouetted by mutual
desire. (To get outside.)
They don't really play
together, unless you count wrestling and chasing. They each enjoy
pursuing the mousie (hot pink near the drain) but Dusty tends to be more
active in it. Jinxie is the lord of the tub though, and loves to leap
into it at full speed, or to wait in it until some human tosses the
mousie in. She then bats it once or twice, but mostly bites it and
carries it back to the hallway, where she drops it and it's picked up,
baton style by Dusty, who yowls around it and bring it back into the
living room in hopes a human will throw it for him. Again.
When we rearranged the
condo in late 2005, this bookcase came from the bedroom into the living
room. We didn't need all the cubby holes anymore, thanks to some other
reorganization, so I left one open, above the couch. As Dusty shows
here, the cats have since taken to sitting in it, though I had to stuff
them in there a few times in the early days, just so they'd get the hang
of it.
The heat comes out of
this radiator in the winter, and this is pretty much what the hallway
looks like, a minute or two after the radiator comes on. Jinx's fur is
much thicker, or she's just less temperature sensitive, since she
doesn't get as cold as Dusty, she doesn't need to be covered up for
warmth, and she can stand right beside the hot air, while Dusty always
gets over to one side or the other.
One of their favorite things is when a new bag of Friskies comes home from Price Club.
Afterwards the bag
looks like this, and I duct tape it up and shove it into a cabinet. They
sometimes keep going after it, but usually it's just that rush of fresh
prey that excites them, and once they've drawn blood and eaten of the
corpse, they lose interest.
More photos to come... |
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All site content copyright "Flux" (Eric Bruce), 2002-2007. |
