T’ain Obituary – Cat in a billion

Initially, we called him ‘Oscar’. But then ‘rat cat’ which became ‘rattain’ Then ‘T’ain’.

 

Mind reading. T’ain could read our minds – of this I am certain. He knew what we were going to do. It was always best to talk to him about what was happening or going to happen, he was much more relaxed about it then.

 

Chasing games. When he was young, Geoff and T’ain played chasing and hiding games through the house. Running and hiding behind things then leaping out with a ‘hah’. T’ain loved it.

 

We got Zazu as company for T’ain. (Didn’t really work, she was far too reserved.) Because he could read our minds, he knew she was coming and wanted to play immediately. She did not no how, so we had both of them running side-by-side through the house. He was extremely protective of the young Zazu. When she climbed her first tree, T’ain ran back and forth between me and the tree ‘get her down’. He was extremely upset when we had Zazu spayed ‘what have you done?’

 

The cleanest of cats. He carefully licked himself down every night before going to bed. (We would wait till he had finished and then touch him. ‘Aargh, humans!’) He had a personal distance of about 1 metre. If we sat down within that space, he would get up and move. When he was young, Helen made him sit on her legs while we were watching TV. At first, he did not like it much. Helen called it paying rent – membawa sewa. In later years, he wanted to sit on Helen.

 

Walks. The walks began with T’ain. I took him for a walk every day I could (usually just Saturday and Sunday). He loved it. He explored every driveway. A few driveways had ants that he loved to eat. Difficult to get him back those days. He had a ritual about staying out until he had his shit. He would then change from mooching along, to racing around and running up trees – then he could have his shit. Usually in the same place each day. He liked the walks along the fire-trail too. He went the furthest – about 2km. (I had to carry him home.)

 

Thugee. One day when on a walk, he met a cat at the corner and had a fight (which he won). Every day, for the rest of his life he stumped up the hill to fight that cat – even though the cat moved house years ago.

Extremely gentle with us. A determined cat who knew he was the boss. Yet, he never once touched us with claws or teeth.

 

Yard and duck cat. T’ain knew absolutely everything that happened in our yard (and very probably every yard of the surrounding 1 kilometer. He certainly inspected every inch of our yard every day. For a few years we had a compost bin behind a rock and T’ain once found some mice in it. For all of the rest of his life, on sunny days, T’ain lay on top of that rock watching for more mice. None came that we knew of. This prompted us to quote the quote that we read in a Theroux book ‘A Chinese peasant must sit on a hillside for a long time with his mouth open before a roast duck flies in’.

 

Car, arrival. and place. T’ain had an enormous sense of ‘his place’ – physical belonging. He ‘belonging’ in our yard. He hated to be driven anywhere in the car – understandably as he usually ended up at the vet. On the drive back, he would fret until he was back within his 1 km range, when he suddenly would try to get out through the windscreen.

 

Monster Cat. Almost every day of the last years his life, T’ain jumped on the roof. He jump from the side near my office, then down (with a huge ‘bang’ that terrified Wookie which was probably why he did it) onto the skylight. He then had to be lifted down. We left a ladder there for that purpose – getting T’ain off the roof. His special time that showed he was important.

 

Feeding T’ain was extremely difficult. He hated dry food and would eat only fresh meat. We had great struggles trying to get him fresh roo (which he loved but was difficult to get – most of what we could buy was rancid. On dry food, he got clogged (probably because he would not drink enough water) and twice almost died from it – clogged cat.

 

Birds. T’ain was a terror with birds. He could and did catch all kinds of small birds. We tried collars to no effect. I saw him launch himself more than 3 metres  and uphill to catch a bird in a tree. I had to make certain he had the food he wanted or he would head down the creek to catch a bird.

 

We got T’ain from the Cat Protection Society at Blacktown in April 1992 when he was 6 months. He was in a large pen the floor of which was covered with cats all saying ‘pick me, pick me’. Boss cat, T’ain was on a shelf and launched himself into Helen’s arms