On top of Mt. Misu...

all covered with fur

		Jan 2000. Misu perched atop living room coat rack. Wild cats like to perch in the limbs of trees. For Misu, the spokes atop a "bent wood" coat rack serve the same purpose: Misu lays herself across the spokes and watches the world below. The eyes are the windows of the soulMisu's eyes! Another picture of Misu perched atop coat rack (Click here, to see backlit pictures of Misu, in gold and silver-white light, which used to be in this location, but which I don't like so much any more, in part because they make Misu's head look too "flat".)

See Misu's face close up: "the eyes are the windows of the soul"!

Go to [old] backlit pictures of Misu, in gold and silver-white light.

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Go/Return to photo of Misu in her favorite resting place: "You've got mail!"
Go/Return to still more photos of Misu: "Misu in your face...."
Go/Return to photo of Misu holed up in her "Kitty bunker".

Go/Return to photo of Misu resting on sofa. Misu catches her first mouse!   See small wild cat (Kodkod) perched in tree.

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Return to first page of Misu photos.
Learn about Misu's older half-sister: Abiko (Abiko hates Misu).
Return to Essays page.

Go to website Table of Contents. Return to Brad McCormick's home page. Return to site map.

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http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/misu7.html Copyright © 2000-2002 Brad McCormick, Ed.D. bradmcc@cloud9.net 23 May 2006 v01.24		La Dolce Vita Once there was a Maine coon cat named Misu. Misu was very soft and fluffy. Misu was so soft and fluffy that all day she delighted in just being so soft and fluffy. She would roll around just to feel how soft and fluffy she was. She purred all the time, and occasionally made little squeaks of delight -- just because, for Misu, happiness was just enjoying being Misu. Luxe, calme et volupté

A [small] Misu miracle: Misu finds her way home We never let the cats out of the house. Because Misu does not, in general, give indications of high intelligence, I have always feared that if she ever got out, she would be attracted by something that would lead her away from the house, and then she not be able to find her way back home. Somehow, on 27Mar02, Misu got out, without anyone noticing -- a visitor probably inadvertantly left the front door open? Some time later, my wife, unaware that Misu was MIA, heard scratching at the front door. She dismissed this as possibly something threatening which she hoped would go away. Then the scratching came again, and she opened the door and there was Misu at the door, frantically asking through her scratching, to be let in. (Once back inside, Misu acted very "clingy" -- indicating that she had been frightened by being outside and was glad to have successfully gotten back to safety.) Somehow, finding herself outside and frightened, Misu had figured out to come back to the front door and to scratch on it to get the attention of the people inside to open the door and let her back in. The only previous understanding of the "outside" Misu had, was from the perspective of looking out at the world from inside the house: through the windows, through the front door when it is momentarily open for persons to enter or leave, and through the back door screen door, where she could sit for hours and look out at the back yard through the screen.... Now, somehow Misu managed to reconstellate this information from the opposite perspective, and apply it to make sense of the novel situation in which she was distressed to find herself: being outside, as contrasted with seeing the outside from inside. Then she was further able to use this creative insight to navigate her way back home to safety. Thus Misu exhibited a small but very welcome example of fluffy ingelligence figuring out how to cope with a situation in which the cat had no direct precedent experience, and consequently her behavior could not be attributed to habit or "conditioning"! (Not to mention that, when given this opportunity to "vote with her feet", Misu freely opted to return to where normally she is constrained to be.) See also: Misu flees her Kitty Bunker but does not run out of the house even though all the outside doors are open and no one watching, on Moving Day, 22May06.