Most of pet owners know that their much loved four-legged members of the family come with a lot of personality and unique, sometimes almost human-like behavior. For instance, my cat would act as a peacemaker when she smells the human fight. If I become angry and start raising my voice during the conversation with someone, she would just jump on my legs and slightly scratch me in an attempt to cool me off. I am sure that people can tell us plenty of such examples of interesting pet behavior. But do they realize that their pets can be very picky when it comes to choosing a new friend?



They do it using such criteria as smell, size, gender, age and even appearance. In fact, they can even discriminate other animals according to the color of the fur among other things, as I soon discovered about my new cat.



When I first brought home my jet black panther-looking cat Regina, I was so excited to have her in my house until I realized that she might feel lonely and need someone to play with her. So, I started to look around for a good match for her. I opened up the flier and found the advertisement for “Very cute cat to good home” and responded to it. Naively assuming that all cats that are cute and mellow will get along just fine, I brought him home. Almost immediately upon bringing him home Regina jumped into the air with him screaming and hissing. I was surprised to find the ugly side of my otherwise calm and sweet cat's nature and immediately knew this would not work out. Later there were more cats: a white one, gray one, even multicolored cats, different ages and genders – although the U.N. or Jesse Jackson would have been proud; it was always the same story. Either they would fight or Regina would simply reject the cat outright. I began to think that my unassuming cat was “racist” or maybe just a loner.



Just as I was about to give up and thinking that maybe she doesn't need or want anyone as a roommate, I gave it one last try. I brought home a younger male cat that was as black as she was. Despite his smaller size and obvious fear of her, he tried to look brave by showing off in a way that is typical for cats. He was trying to intimidate her by walking towards her sideways with an arched back in the attempt to look bigger. She just watched his “performance” for a while but eventually just started to ignore him as if she was embarrassed for him. It wasn't long before she accepted him and even acted as good hostess.



Their temperament and personalities are very but they still get along very well. For instance, Regina is a very balanced and quite cat, very gentle and loves to eat. Casey, on the other hand can be very hyper and restless, a hooligan, to say the least like all boys in general. They sleep together during the days, play and beg for snacks. Sometimes Regina even tries to teach him how to open drawers and the refrigerator door, but he acquired his own little hobbies now such as meowing at 7am every morning, waking everyone up in the house demanding food and to be let outside.



My “racist” Regina finally met her dear friend/roommate named Casey.

About the Author

Julia Imaeva is a writer for Helpful Home Ideas. Please include an active link to this site if you'd like to reprint this article.