NO, no, neow! I will not agree that there is anything known as dog-it-tude. But there is definitely a lot of cat-it-tude around where there are cats. We cats are built that way. We are graceful creatures with minds of our own and have lots of attitude, I beg your pardon … it is cat-it-tude!

Those of you who have spent time with dogs would know that if you ask a dog to get up and go if they happen to sit in the middle of the doorway or a pathway, the dog will be most happy to listen to you. But if you tell a cat to move, it will only do so if he was contemplating about the move all by himself. Well that is the way we are and people love us for who we are.

Pet related injuries are very common. Cats can hurt their owners sometimes. Not because they intend to or plan on it, but accidents happen all the time. Let me tell you the story of Pappu’s grandmother and how she got hurt.

They were having a barbeque in their garden which also has a little pond. There were guests in the garden along with Kenny, their energetic and poorly trained Labrador. The dog was about 18 months old but was more puppy than grown-up. In his excitement at having so many people over, he started running around and hit into one of the guests, who happened to be a senior citizen — Pappu’s grandmother. When the dog knocked her down the lady tried to grab the edge of the pond but her hand hit it hard and broke her wrist in the fall.

My human’s friend Natasha hurt herself as she was getting ready to go to work. That morning she stepped out of her room in a hurry and tripped over the cat sitting on top of the stairs. The result was a rather nasty fall in which she broke her ankle. The fracture, the doctor said, was small but it would take more than four weeks to heal.

And this story I must confess, happened because of me. My human was running across the lounge to pick up the telephone. I came in her way because I thought I would race her down the lounge and have some fun but she tripped and fell. No broken bones here but to avoid colliding into me, she scraped her arm leg with a pointed corner of a table and got badly scratched. Like I said, these accidents happen when you least expect them and can cause serious injuries. So pets in the house cannot be taken for granted like pieces of furniture. They will not stay where you put them but will move and run and stop and play, as and when they please. In a way, they are like little children in the house, so you have to pet-proof the house so that we don’t run into trouble and you need to be conscious of our existence that we are present and easily excitable. So if you are in a hurry, and going to run around, call our names and find out where we are. Once you have spotted us, you can move fast or slow, it is up to you.

Coming back to where we started, you can ask the dog to move to another spot if he is in the way. But if it is a cat, you can try your luck; for it may give you some cat-it-tude and stalk off to find another interest; or you will have to step aside and move on.