Here's a hypothetical situation for you to consider:
It is Saturday afternoon, and being a responsible member of society, you decide to take care of some household chores. You clean your filthy bathroom. Your first move is to clean your cat's litter box and replace the old stinky litter with nice, fresh litter. You then place the nice clean box in the hallway just outside the bathroom, so that your beloved cat can do his business while you spray poisonous chemicals over all exposed bathroom surfaces.
The cat reacts to this behavior by completely losing his mind, in the following ways:
1) Wanting to be inside when he is out, and vice versa, with a never-before-seen level of desperation.
2) While outside, bounding around in an alarming fashion, and trying to claw his way through the patio fence.
3) While inside, sitting down by the front door and emitting plaintive squeaks, as though he has ever once been allowed to go through it and this luxury is now cruelly denied to him.
4) Begging to be petted, allowing said petting to take place for approximately 22 seconds, and then attempting to claw off your arm.
5) Entering his litter box, making strange noises so that you will stop your cleaning and come see what the hell he is doing, and when you do that, leaping forth from the box, tearing to the end of the hallway with tail fully bushy, and then turning around and glaring at you in an offended fashion.
6) As you make your way around the house, charging at your legs, swatting your knee, and then running off in the opposite direction, to crouch behind a chair or box and wait for his next chance to ambush you. Repeat.
What would you conclude from this behavior?
A) Your cat has a pathological fear of cleaning.
B) Your cat thinks that your moving of the litter box indicates your nefarious plan to take him off to the glue factory later that day.
C) Your cat has inhaled some scrubbing bubbles and is hallucinating.
D) Your cat thinks he is a bull.
E) Other (please describe).
I choose a combination of choices C and D - clearly Murray was hallucinating that he was a bull, or was having flashbacks to such a hallucination he experienced in the past. ;-]
At this point I ask the court to refer to evidence item A, a video of Murray's previous attempt at bull-like behavior; in which he was seen to burst forth from a calm sitting posture in the living room, crashing through the screen door to the patio, knocking it from its track and leaving those onlookers in the living room both perplexed and amused.
Clearly this cat has suffered some sort of negative hallucinatory experience which permanently altered his personal identity awareness, leaving him with lingering bovine tendencies.
Beware!
Posted by: Josh at August 26, 2002 11:18 AM...uh... maybe you should look to Murray's troubled past. He is obviously unused to having owners who clean. I'm not saying acid flashbacks aren't part of it, but let's all recall that in his recent history everytime someone cleaned and them moved his litter box a drastic perspective/personnel shift occured to his immediate environment. I'm sure he'll get used to cleaning eventually... and he'll come to enjoy the high he gets off of your many cleaning products just as he enjoyed some of his pervious owner's other... non-cleaning products ;)
Posted by: Department of Social Services at August 26, 2002 10:20 PMIt is clear from the behavior you describe that Murray is suffering from the effects of long-term institutionalization coupled with a new-found access to freedom and choice. He is rebelling against the confines of his previous overly-restrictive environment and has yet to acquire the decision-making skills and correct behavioral responses which will allow him to make appropriate use of a patio. I recommend a full psychiatric assessment. It's possible that medication may help, but you may want to try some highly-structured behavioral supports to assist him in adjusting to life in the community. When was his last ISP?
Posted by: Psycho Mods at August 27, 2002 08:17 PM