Have you ever noticed that cats act like children sometimes? Something strange happened here over the weekend along those lines. On Friday, I noticed that Chase’s right eye was bothering him. It was red, watery, and partly closed, and he kept rubbing it with his paw.
For both him and Kali, this seems to be a somewhat regular occurrence, and our vet hasn’t been able to find anything causing it. She says they’re both probably just prone to getting things in their eyes. Usually, I keep an eye on it, and it resolves itself in less than 24 hours.
Saturday came and went, and so did most of Sunday, and his eye did not improve. It didn’t get worse, either, but it was enough to make me take a closer look and see if maybe he had an abrasion, tiny ulcer, cut, or something else going on. I couldn’t see anything at all. I looked at him and told him that if it wasn’t better by Monday morning, I was going to call the vet.
Our cats act like children quite a bit
Surprise, surprise, Chase’s eye was better within half an hour of my telling him that. It was like telling a child who’s faking illness to get out of school that you’re going to take them to the doctor in the morning if they’re not feeling any better. His eye was open all the way, the redness was gone, it stopped watering, and he stopped rubbing it.
Usually when our cats act like children, it’s along the lines of jumping off the counter, or the dining room table, when they hear us walk in the door. Never have I seen it when I’ve “threatened” to take them to the vet for something. In fact, most of the time, when I decide it’s time to call the vet, it turns out to be a good idea.
Chase is a very smart cat, but he obviously couldn’t fake those symptoms. Even if he could, he’d have no real reason to. But given that our very smart cats act like children so often, a coincidence like this can feel awfully weird.
