Hi everyone,
Today’s Guest Post comes from Yoda his mum Blogs over at Boring Cape Town Chick:
Hello! Molweni! Kunjani! Hoe gaan dit? Sawabona! My name is Yoda Sproat and I’m from Cape Town, South Africa. I hope you enjoyed my various African greetings. I learnt these words as my earliest memories are of living in the AACL, the Animal Anti-Cruelty League, on the Cape flats of the Mother City.
The ‘Cape Flats’ is the term giving to the terrain in the heart of Cape Town where the land is very flat. It’s an interesting place as there are many kind people, and also many gangsters, who live there. Some animals are used for dog fighting, some become road kill and others are given to the AACL if their owners cannot care for them. This is where I was living until my human parents found me.
One day my Mother human, Boring Cape Town Chick, was surfing Facebook when she saw a photo album of cats for adoption from the AACL. She scrolled through until she found my profile. I had been at the AACL for quite some time as apparently I was “too big” and people only wanted 6 week old kittens. My mother left a message for the people at AACL in the hopes that I was still looking for a loving home. Luckily for her, I was!
One Friday morning, her and my Daddy human drove through to meet me. It was love at first sight (for them)! They couldn’t believe how SMALL I was and that I was also…a girl! They had already named me after some green alien that was wise with big ears, “Yoda” and since no one really knows what a Yoda is, they kept my name. My granny human also has a cat called Chubukka.
I now live with my parents on the 5th story of a lovely apartment block. Every day I get to look at the crows, Egyptian geese and Hadadas flying past, from my stand. I love to chatter at the black sparrows who perch on the nearby trees and look down on the stupid guineafowls who always peck the parked cars.
During the day my mom goes to work and my dad plays his drum n bass music.
I have 2 favourite toys. The first is the yellow monster. I am not a great climber, but I am an excellent jumper. Sometimes I can jump nearly 1.5 meters to catch the yellow monster!
My MOST favourite toy though is a thing call ‘peas’. I can hear my mother open the fridge door then I rush to the kitchen as I know it’s time to play, “where the pea”. I don’t know why people eat peas when they are so much fun to catch. Humans are weird. Sometimes my mom puts the pea in the bath and I have a grand time catching it! It’s an exhausting game.
When my mother human gets home after work, I do my ‘jackal’ act. I show them who is boss with my big eyes and spikey coat. This makes them chase me and I love to hide and pounce out at them when they don’t see me.
Every night when my mother goes to bed I hide under her dressing table. They say that I squash her in the night and that I’m disruptive. I don’t understand what’s so wrong with asking for breakfast at 4:20am every morning? So now I hide in the bedroom and then my Dad has to try grab me and catch me, HAHA! Last night I hid under a sheet that was drying (it’s winter here now). I then pounced on them when they tried to get me.
Sometimes my plan works and they forget I’m there. I then get to creep onto the lovely soft bed. At exactly 4:20am I will pull on my mother’s top to wake her up, even if my Dad has just gotten home from a gig, I will wake her up because I like her to feed me.
In the morning, I will watch the reflection lightening. As the sun rises, light is reflected into the apartment. I love to chase the light! I will then sleep all day to catch up on trying to wake my mother up at 4am.
I am curious and goofy like all good cats should be and love my humans very, very much. They are the best slaves I could have ever wished to live with.
We hope you enjoyed Yoda’s tale and don’t forget to checkout his mum’s blog. 😀
And lastly don’t forget to sign up to the Katzenworld Newsletter.
Just sweety kid.
Thank you 🙂
cute little cat tale!
Thanks 😀
so lovely 🙂 Thank you, love, nia
😀 thanks
The jackal act: too funny 😀
Ciao
Sid
Haha 🙂
Your human slaves seems to have denied you one wonderful game, it is called clicker-training. That is to show off with all your wits and your strength in self-discipline and even to show that you understand the stupid humans’ language …
Hi Fran! So do you click when kitties do something right? I think I saw this on a TV show once! Not sure you even get these clickers in SA, will have to ask 🙂
Just take an old-fashioned ballpoint-pen – those make a sound, too.
I did some training but without clicks – I rewared immediately. The click is the middle man – as it is quicker, c0nditioning the cat that a treat is to follow. If your timing in handing out a treat is ok, you do not need a click. Made my FunTom learn SIT and my little, very shy cat become a lot less shy.
Yoda definitely doesn’t have a shy problem HAHAHA! But the pen idea is brilliant. So I will click when she does something right, correct?
First you will start to condition Yoda. Click, treat. Click, treat. Click, treat. She will pretty soon come to expect the treat after the click. That is when the reward-feeling is transferred to the click (still, with cats you can never leave out the actual reward, but you have more time to give that).
Then you only click when she is doing something she should do. Every step in that direction is clicked (and then rewarded, do not leave out the reward, this is a cat, not a dog, not that easily fooled!)
For example, when I taught Kessy to endure human touches, I started with one finger being sniffed. You would click, I just handed her a treat. Repeated! Repetition is important.
Then I rewarded when she let that finger caress her softly around the jaw-line. Again, repetition ..
And then I moved that hand even further her down her back and sides. Slowly, rewarded, repeated. She learned quickly to associate being caressed with being given a treat.
Why do people use a real clicker when it can be a pen? Because of the louder noise. If you have a dog, you go outside and if you want to do clicker-training there, you have to have something that is louder than a pen. But for indoor cats the pen works fine.
Meanwhile I can rub Kessy’s belly. Rub her fur against the growth-direction. Can touch her paws and caress the soft fur just under the big pad. No more panic. Just sometimes she does not WANT to. Like everybody.
Thanks for the info 🙂
I taught Oli to do maennchen with treats 😮
A late great aunt of mine trained her cats, too. I have never seen it myself, but she let them jump through hoops it was said.
Impressive! And here I thought my trick was an achievement already haha
It is. I only managed to teach a simple SIT.
The only time I get Nubia to sit is next to toys and treats for reviews lol. And that’s because she figured out that she gets them after I get the photos done LOL
Thank you to Katzenworld for sharing our little African cat story. Gorgeous blog xx
You are most welcome. 🙂
What an amazing story! who wouldn’t want that sweet Yoda?
Horrible people 🙁 But yay for us for getting her! 😀
🙂
Lovely story, lovely cat.
Thanks 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
Purrseidon thinks that pea game looks like fun, but is also of the opinion that there should be water in the tub.
Haha. Cats and water only purrseidon will tolerate it 😉
Purrseidon thinks water is the greatest thing on earth … if she ever learns to turn on the faucet, my water bill is doomed.
LOL. She may learn this. My friends cat can turn tabs as he prefers fresh flowing water he learned to turn it on. He does forget to turn it off though… That boy can also open windows which is even more annoying =.=
WELL, if she turned it off, I wouldn’t mind! Opening the window would activate the security system, though.
Yeah that wouldn’t be good. My friend thought they had a burglar break in at first before working out it was the cat XD
We thought that when Purrseidon woke us up playing with her beach ball … she had always slept through the night, prior to that.
Just a wonderful story and very special and beautiful cat. I love it!
Thanks 🙂
Yoda has a partner in crime on this side of the world (Washington state, USA) who also likes breakfast between 4:00 and 4:30 am. And then he sleeps all day! And wakes me every few hours during the night. That’s okay as at my age I would be awake every few hours even without my beloved Diavolo.
Thank you for sharing your story, Yoda!
🙂 we will need some more adventure stories of Mr Diavolo ^^
His adventures tend to be out doors at night so I don’t get to see them. Now that I’ve learned to let him out when he asks (I know that he will come up on the patio and be safe if there’s trouble) I get more sleep because if he wants out he just pats my cheek until I get up and let him out.
He’s usually sleeping soundly in his chair (formerly mine) on the patio when I get up….usually after six am. Early for some folks, I know, but I’ve always been a morning person….just not at 4 am.
I’ve seen mini cameras that some people attached to their cats collars on TV the other day. The general adventures weren’t as glamorous as we would have thought. Loads of videos of carpets, human legs and tables at odd angles LOL
Mine would be the stems of plants and stumps of trees and a lot of the cushion on his favorite chair.:-)
Lol. For us it would be the table. Inside of the scratch tree and our bed at odd angles haha
Hi Yoda,
My name is Kato I agree with you that 4:00 AM is a good time to play with my human Mom and eat. I wonder why our humans don’t think so.
Aaaah Oli and Nubia also like that time… Lol
So adorable, reminds me of my Merlin, who loved to play and wake me during the night.
Night time rituals =.=. Oli wakes me up a lot too lol
🙂
Yoda’s adorable even among cats. I love the pea game! My Nickel Catmium likes to get in the tub but then she just beats the sides with her paws. We don’t know what she thinks she’s doing.
Hmmm maybe she wants to destroy the evil water containing tub? Lol
Nickel is a Bengal and therefore weird, she likes water!
Ah bengals. I heard they often enjoy water.
Such a cutie- I am glad you got a great forever home.
Thank you <3
Yoda is a sweetheart! And, thank you, Yoda, for finding a good use for peas!!! I personally can’t stand them, but now I know their true use! I shall try this out on my cats and see what they think. So glad she found a home.
So here is my belief in why so many cats are named “Yoda” one of which I am a proud owner, because when cats are kittens, they are all ears reminding us of Yoda from Star Wars. We call our Yoda “Yodi” because cats seem to respond well to names ending in the “i” or “y” sound. I would not have named him “Yoda” because I have had my day of naming a cat Yoda but he was not a kitten when I got him. He gets called “Yo, Yo”, “Yo” and “Yo-wee” (the last thanks to grandchildren. Your Yoda is a beautiful cat and its obvious she is full of purrsonality.
Awww. You’ll have to do a guest post about your Yoda at some point 🙂
Its in the works.
🙂
Great story and Yoda is adorable! My Bette wakes me up for a snuggle and to pet her.
Thanks 🙂