The Experience of Raising a “Dog – like” Cat: My Adorable Blue Cat, Xiaojiu

The Experience of Raising a “Dog – like” Cat

My blue cat, Xiaojiu, was adopted when I was studying abroad and then brought back home. Its bloodline is not pure. An old lady’s blue cat mated with a tabby cat (seemingly) and gave birth to a litter of kittens. Since she couldn’t take care of all of them, she gave them away. At that time, I gave 400 rubles symbolically (there’s a saying that if you don’t give some money, the cat is not easy to raise well). However, the cat food she gave me was worth far more than that amount…

My Xiaojiu is simply a “dog among cats”. He has been clingy since he was a kitten and always looks a bit silly, but in fact, he is quite intelligent. When I brought him back, he was just over two months old. I told him how to use the litter box only once, and he learned it. Except for one time when I forgot to change the litter, he has never peed or pooped randomly. Later, I started to train him to recognize his name and stand up to rub my palm.

He learned these skills after being taught several times. At that time, I lived in a dormitory (a single – room), and the conditions were not particularly good. I couldn’t put everything away, so I told Xiaojiu which places he couldn’t step on, such as the keyboard and the tablet; which places he couldn’t climb on, like the dining table; and which things he couldn’t touch casually, like the tea set. He learned all these things after being told once and I never had to worry too much. The only thing is that because Xiaojiu likes to get on the bed, I can’t accept him going out for a stroll. But he is so curious about the outside world that he often sneaks out.

Also, he has a strange preference for the water in my cup. He doesn’t drink his own water…

This guy is best at pretending to be stupid. He looks at you with a blank face every day. If you ask him to do something he doesn’t want to do, he’ll pretend to be stupid. However, sometimes I really think he is stupid. As a cat, he was walking along the edge of the table, and then he sprained his foot and fell down? He really fell down!

After falling, he also feels embarrassed. He secretly looks at you. If he finds that you didn’t see it, he just goes on with what he was doing. If he finds that you saw it, he immediately turns his head and pretends that nothing happened!