Things Horus is scared of

[la_marquise]

Horus is a nervous cat, there are no two ways about it. He had a very safe secure kitten-hood, and I think we give him a good life here, so it must be inherent. He's a scaredy cat, and so it goes.
Some of his terrors are obvious and common -- the car, the vacuum cleaner, thunderstorms, parties, sudden noises.
However, he is also scared of:
the ironing board
the marquis's blue anorak
my long teal and cream skirt
people opening envelopes
Moon-cat sneezing (not a loud noise)
the recycling boxes (they're big! they're blue!)
tamaranth, who is petite and quiet and Not Scary
shopping.
Yesterday, he shot under the kitchen sink (he can open the cupboards) because It Had Started Raining! While he was indoors asleep on a futon.

He is not scared of:
magpies dive-bombing him (a Good Game, apparently)
Ish landing on him from a height
our tall and rather loud friend J, who takes up a lot of space
the vet.

My cat does not make sense.

Comments

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

So far, these are the things that the horse I normally ride at the school is afraid of, or at any rate, dislikes:

Rain
Puddles
Dogs (doing anything)
Birds (any species, doing anything)
Cows (mooing)
Lawnmowers
Bugles
Helicopters
Military aircraft
Flies (fair enough, I don't like them either)
Anyone who turns up in the arena during the lesson
Anyone who turns up outside the arena during the lesson
Bamboo poles, traffic cones and hurdles
Sudden draughts
Mud
Invisible monsters
Trotting clockwise
Trotting counter-clockwise
Trotting in a straight line


She's not that keen on me, either.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Ah, yes, invisible monsters. Those are Bad, too.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

That's just normal...

I presume she is also scared of fag packets, tiny bits of cellophane caught on barbed wire and anything that rattles...

Well, most of the ones I rode used to be. What they were really scared of, though, was the stable manager who was in her 80s and formidable.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

It sounds like he has an issue with things that are blue. Did the sky fall on him at a young age?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Quite possibly.

[elfwhistletree.livejournal.com]

Horus is definitely eccentric, and I am inclined to agree with purplecthulhu's blue theory?

Toffee dog likes the MIB as well - apparently his inner soppiness shines through or is detectable by scent or something;-)

If you wanted to experiment, we could try forcing the MIB to wear blue sometime - that might mean exploring the back of the wardrobe, or trying a dressing gown over his jeans?

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That could be worth trying. The MIB definitely has a way with animals.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Lily has just refused to walk past the hired Rug Doctor because It Scary.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Dear Lily, Stay away it is evil it will eat you it is a vacuum that is Wet!!!
love from Horus..
Yes, Horus also runs away from the Vax when we shampoo the carpets.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

We once had a dog so scared of water that she wouldn't walk on a wet pavement.

[korintomichi]

The other day Azumi went missing temporarily. We thought she had maybe got caught outside during a thunderstorm and managed to find a place to shelter. After a couple of hours we were starting to worry, only to see her emerge from underneath the futon having established that it was safe to come out and that the nasty thunder had really gone away. She doesn't like loud music either (or our singing), despite being a LOUD miaower.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I do understand the thunder -- loud noises are startling.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

My boys love 'em: thunder, fireworks, drums from the strange purple place across the road. They sit in the window and enjoy. It's one of the few activities they're prepared to do together.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

As observed previously, your cats are strange...

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Zil isn't scared of anything except an empty food bowl, and maybe dogs.

Fruitcake completely agrees with Horus re ironing boards (eek!) and magpie attacks (boring!), but not about tamaranth, who she likes much better than us, but not as much as she used to like her. Generally, she likes strangers: the less she's seen you, the more she likes you. And she likes people better outdoors. And if they smell of cigarettes.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It's nice to know that Horus isn't unique in the ironing board phobia.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's ironing boards specifically with Fruitcake, just monkeys moving the furniture around.

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

You expected a cat to make sense????

My previous cat was also a scaredy-cat. And not all that intelligent to boot. (He was born feral on Staten Island, which I believe accounts for the latter.) I had him since he was about 6 weeks.

He was pretty much afraid of everything except me, T, and podling.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Part of Horus' charm is that he is the least sensible cat we have ever had, and the least predictable. He is quite smart -- he worked out early on how to open doors, for instance, but he has no common sense whatsoever.

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

That is indeed charming!

This one figured out how to unbuckle a collar. Not a snap-off mind you, but one that had a buckle like a belt buckle. Took her two weeks. (And it's an awesome collar--red with skull and crossbones!)

It still confuses me that I have a smart cat, even though we've had her 2 or 3 years (I somehow lost track of time).

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Oh, that is smart. Mine can get out of the safety kind, but then they are designed to escapable, so... Iskander learnt to take off his buster collar when he had stitches, though, which was not useful at all. Smart cats are great, but definitely challenging.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

This makes me feel better about Java who is pretty much just generically scared of everything that isn't me or food. And yeh her sis who has shared all her existence is comparatively ballsy so it must just be genetics!

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

ps java isn't scared of the vet either. But she is TERRIFIED of her cat-box to get her there...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Yep. The cat box is of the evil.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Our cats are calm, rational and unmoved by anything...unless I sneeze. Then it is as if forty thousand demons rose up from hell specifically to terrorize them. They scatter to the four corners, which is pretty good, considering there's only two of them.

[ms-cataclysm.livejournal.com]

Congratulations to Horus Spottipaws on his cupboard opening skills.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Ah, it's all those invisible Egyptian spirits and gods....

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

There's a thought. I wouldn't be surprised, given Horus.