Empires

As you may have inferred from this post, I’ve watched more than my share of nature documentaries. 

There’s something about them. They tell a story, but no one you have to pay much attention to. They depict a spectacular picture of a complex world. And I usually learn a thing or two. If I’m working on my laptop at home and just want something on the television as background, I often choose a nature doc, a Wild China or Planet Earth or Night on Earth. 

I’ve learned a lot about big cats from nature documentaries. 

Most big cats are not classically social animals. (Lions being the notable exception.) They are reared by their mothers. Once they attain maturity, they leave their mothers to spend their adult lives alone. They live in territories defined by the absence of another member of their species. An adult male snow leopard’s territory does not overlap with that of another adult male snow leopard. By design, their paths do not cross, save for in mating-related conflicts. Dominant males may expand their territories gradually over time. Isolation means conquest. 

What does mean for Julie, or for your cat? Well, I don’t know, but I have my theories. 

Julie has lived most of her life in apartments. Some of them were nice, some were not. 

Last September, Julie moved into her first real house, one replete with bay windows she adores. She made an instant connection with this house. I can’t describe what I mean by that, but it was obvious to me. She torpedoed room-to-room like a kitten. Whenever a new door opened, she surged inside with an uncommon glee in her eyes. It wasn’t long before she had explored every nook. She takes special pleasure from accessing places the dog cannot, or will not, reach. The dog can’t go up the stairs, for example. (Don’t worry about her too much — we carry her up them all the time.) The dog won’t go into the basement. Julie frolics about these forbidden venues with spring in her steps. She sits in the bay windows of the sitting room looking out at the street in front of her, judging the peasants who pass by. 

I imagine she views this new home as a territorial expansion, a more vast land in which she remains the alpha, and only, feline. 

As snow leopards go, it’s like Julie has acquired her own range in the Himalayas to hunt, conquer, roam, and reign.