Cat Baiting

Back in the days of the Christians and the Romans, we know that the Romans liked their bread and circuses, liked hand-to-hand combat with gladiators, liked to watch people being torn to pieces by wild animals, liked to watch animals tearing one another apart and expected that kind of entertainment. Although Italy might have been the center of the Roman Empire, nonetheless the Spanish are descendents of these self-same Romans (hence the term ‘romance language’ when referring to Spanish, French and Italian languages). As representatives of that same Roman tradition, today here in Santa Rosalia we have still have cockfighting and dog fighting (and bull fighting elsewhere in Mexico). Moving right along to Casa Abeja with the advent of Lupita’s arrival, our house has sadly become a center for blood, well, fur sports, namely—cat baiting.



Any cat is good bait, but especially Winnie who is more active and more tolerant. We can boldly lick a cat on the face in the morning to show our Good Will and turn around and chase and bite the same cat boldly on the tail or other parts a mere 10 minutes later. When we really get into proper form, the mouth is full of cat fur, sufficient enough to look like a beard. The puppy knows that this is not acceptable, she has been told ‘no’, which generally lasts about 3 minutes until the puppy brain forgets, as it also forgets what housetraining is all about most of the time.

During the baiting the puppy approaches the cat, grappling it with the paws, trying to knock it on its side. Although the cat is twice as large, it is taken aback, falls over on its side from the onslaught and starts kicking the puppy with its hind legs. The puppy backs off and the cat bats it around with its front paws. The puppy then turns its rump to the cat, protecting its eyes from claws and making a strange puffing sounds. When we hear this puffing sound from another room we race in saying 'no, no, bad dog'. The cat takes off running at the interruption, the puppy gives chase.

The cat runs and jumps on the bed and watches the puppy leaping about making puffing noises, probably not unlike the sound a killer whale emits when hunting. The puppy can now jump up on the couch by herself, but still not the bed. At some point the cat races out of the bedroom, the puppy in full pursuit. The cat jumps up on the cat perch to get away. As the cat leaps it generally loses a chunk of fur that is left behind in the puppy’s mouth.

Sometimes the cat encourages this chasing. Bad cat. Can't help cats that encourage this kind of errant behavior.