Trained by a cat

It was up at Grandma's place, where I'd follow the cat. Poochie was his name, unusual name for a cat, but that's what it was.

Anyways, I'd follow him into the forest. There was lots of forest up there, basically in any direction. The cat usually just kinda wandered around in them nearby. The most memorable times with the cat happened behind the shacks, off the path towards the tamarack forest. This forest was poplar.

It started with me, on a random day, deciding to just... go on all fours, and follow the cat into the forest. I can't imagine what my parents thought if or when they'd seen me, but off I went crawling after the cat.

At first the cat ignored me, me being maybe 6 at the time, and started to hunt through the trees and bushes once it reached the woods. And not ten feet behind him, I was crawling, crunching over every branch and twig on the ground. The cat looked back at me annoyed, like.... you're making SO much noise, what is wrong with you?!? And then he looked forward again and kept going. And I after him. He looked back a second time, this time with more... understanding, or more... ok, this... kitten(?!?)... is following me and trying to learn. And then he scrunched down really low, and kept stalking forwards. I followed suit, and hunched down low and followed over the logs and through the leaves. And every few seconds, he would look back at me, make sure I'm still following, checking out my form perhaps, and then keep going. Looking at me like, making sure. And onwards I followed, mimicking the cat, learning, copying. And he kept checking on me.

And then the cat stopped, and stared up into a tree. I crawled up behind him, and crouched down low, looked right between his ears, and after a few moments, spotted the bird in the trees. We stayed like that for a few seconds, staring, teacher and student. And then he began slinking forwards again, and after letting him get a few feet ahead, I followed again.

When the cat would stop, I would stop. If he stared at something, I would come up behind, look between his ears, and try to spot the same thing. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't. I did this for several years, any time that we were out at grandma's, and any time that the cat would allow. I only got to go out on three or four occasions with that cat, hunting with him, being taught by him, but they were some of the most memorable things from the farm.

He never actually *caught* anything when I was hunting with him, likely because my crunching over the branches and leaves scared off anything nearby, but he taught me all the same. This weird, strange kitten who wanted to learn. And learn from him I did :3

The farm is also where I got my whistle. Ahh, the four-finger whistle, where I can get it so loud that it even hurts my OWN ears :D

Trained by a cat. One of my proudest accomplishments :3