Nature Versus Nurture

What are the most important factors in determining a cat’s temperament? My very first kitten, Willow, had me pondering this question, my skills in animal care, and my ability to influence the behavior of another; human and animal alike. Willow came to us, as sometimes the best pets do, by accident.

A friend had found him in the heater duct of a building in a remote location. Still too young to be separated from his mother, Willow had the instinct to find a warm shelter in the frigid December weather but was still dependent on milk and far too young to hunt his own food. Our friend planned to take him but soon discovered that his daughter was allergic. This created an ethical dilemma as leaving him would mean a very low probability of survival, and so two weeks before Christmas and without the Landlord’s knowledge, I found myself in possession of my first kitten.

I raised Willow by hand. At first I attempted bottle feeding but he quickly graduated to slurping his kitten formula from a dish. I woke up in the night to ensure he ate every four hours and was relieved when he started taking solids. He took naps underneath my pillow. I was determined to keep him safely inside and attempted to allow him out only a much detested kitten leash. But it became evident quite quickly that Willow had the call of the wild. It was impossible to keep him inside. He would make a mad dash for freedom at the slightest hint of footsteps towards the front door. I couldn’t keep him inside unless I was willing to never open the door.

As Willow grew into a an adult cat, he started getting into fights with other cats he met on his nightly excursions. He perused the sewers and found rats; sometimes bringing the carcass of one home to leave on the living room floor as a grotesque present. His hunting skills, as it turned out, were immaculate. It was the fights that brought him to an early end. Several times Willow came home with his skin hanging off of him in ribbons. We got him stitched up, only to have him run off again and return in worse condition than before. Once he ran off and disappeared for days still wearing a cone around his neck. We couldn’t keep him home long enough to have a chance to heal. Finally, one day shortly after he had lost his cone and re-opened his wounds, he disappeared and never returned.

Given the life expectancy of housecats, I thought that I may still have Willow as a pet by the time my first child started college. Although he was separated from other cats and raised by humans from infancy, Willow’s feral instinct was the most influential factor is his short life. The call of the wild was just that strong.