Hello, humans. I’m Maddie, Monty’s sister. If you’re surprised to see that I’ve taken over Monty’s diary today, then I have to say that’s Monty’s fault really, for telling everyone that I’m too shy for such things. He likes to portray me as a wimpish little female without the courage to do anything for myself. Well, it’s true I’m smaller than him. I can’t help that. I’m a lot slimmer too – he doesn’t like me pointing that out – he says it’s his thick, fluffy coat that makes him look bigger but that’s only half the story!
The truth is, he takes after our Rag Doll parent (nobody seems to know if that was our mum or our dad) and I take more after the Siamese side. I’m sleek and slinky and, if I may say so myself, rather beautiful, even if I’m not as cuddly as him. And yes, it’s true that I might come across as somewhat shy and standoffish, compared with my brother, but you know what? It’s just that – like most females, I reckon – I’ve got a bit more common sense.
For instance, with humans, I take time to get to know them properly before I fling myself into their arms for a love-in, the way Monty does. He’s just too trusting for his own good. Luckily he was right about our new home – it has turned out to be lovely, and we’re very happy here. And our human caregivers are lovely too. I’m enjoying the cuddles with ‘Mum’ just as much as Monty does, now, but when we first arrived, how were we to know whether they were going to be all right? As I say, it’s just common sense, isn’t it, to hold back for a while. I guess that’s in my cat instincts. Monty must be missing that gene!
Talking of instincts, here’s another example. When we first got let out into the Great Outdoors (after being Indoor Cats for the first six years of our lives), Monty ran straight down the garden and into the place at the end called The Allotments. Mum and Dad were worried out of their minds. So was I! I told him off, afterwards. For Dog’s sake, he had no idea where he was going! I took a much more careful approach, going a little further each day, and the funny thing is: now, I’m a far more intrepid explorer than he is! Being such a lazy male, he now seems to prefer lying around just outside the house, having one nap after another, and in between naps, just plodding around the garden without a care in the world.
I, on the other hand, have ventured into places I doubt even Mum or Dad have been. Of course, I explored the garden next-door thoroughly first (no dogs or competing cats there), before going to investigate further. And however far I roam, I always hear Mum when she calls me in that funny warbling high-pitched voice that means I need to come home for dinner. So much for me being the nervous little female – see!
The other reason I think I’m more sensible than my brother is that he’s made a fool of himself with his hunting attempts. First it was a frog he carried indoors. Er . . . why? And even though he got into trouble for it, he’s done it twice since! I mean, yes, it’s fun to play with these frog-things and make them squeal and jump, I’ve had a go at it myself. But it was obvious to me that he’d get told off for bringing them into the house. It’s my house too, and I don’t want frogs coming in and taking over – they’re harder to control than the toys in our toy box indoors and who knows where it would all end up? We could have frogs everywhere, eating our food, using our litter trays. Yuck.
Then there was the time he tried to catch one of the flying bird-things. For Dog’s sake! Why can’t he leave things alone? This was – according to Mum, when she told him off afterwards – a baby one, and as you can probably imagine, the baby’s mother came after Monty, screaming at him and trying to bite him. What else did he expect? If I had a kitten, which sadly I don’t think is ever going to happen, I’d bite anyone who tried to carry it away, too. You see: we might have lived indoors for six years, but we still have our natural cat instincts. Even if Monty sometimes acts on them in very inappropriate ways!
Well, anyway: I just thought it was time I set the record straight. I might be smaller, I might be female, I might not be as fluffy as Monty but I’m not quite the scaredy-cat he makes me out to be. And as for him: he might be a big soft dope, but I do love him really!
