Guest Post: Yoda

Hi everyone,

Today’s Guest Post comes from Yoda his mum Blogs over at Boring Cape Town Chick:

Hello! Molweni! Kunjani! Hoe gaan dit? Sawabona! My name is Yoda Sproat and I’m from Cape Town, South Africa. I hope you enjoyed my various African greetings. I learnt these words as my earliest memories are of living in the AACL, the Animal Anti-Cruelty League, on the Cape flats of the Mother City.

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The ‘Cape Flats’ is the term giving to the terrain in the heart of Cape Town where the land is very flat. It’s an interesting place as there are many kind people, and also many gangsters, who live there. Some animals are used for dog fighting, some become road kill and others are given to the AACL if their owners cannot care for them.  This is where I was living until my human parents found me.

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One day my Mother human, Boring Cape Town Chick, was surfing Facebook when she saw a photo album of cats for adoption from the AACL. She scrolled through until she found my profile. I had been at the AACL for quite some time as apparently I was “too big” and people only wanted 6 week old kittens. My mother left a message for the people at AACL in the hopes that I was still looking for a loving home. Luckily for her, I was!

One Friday morning, her and my Daddy human drove through to meet me. It was love at first sight (for them)! They couldn’t believe how SMALL I was and that I was also…a girl! They had already named me after some green alien that was wise with big ears, “Yoda” and since no one really knows what a Yoda is, they kept my name. My granny human also has a cat called Chubukka.

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I now live with my parents on the 5th story of a lovely apartment block. Every day I get to look at the crows, Egyptian geese and Hadadas flying past, from my stand. I love to chatter at the black sparrows who perch on the nearby trees and look down on the stupid guineafowls who always peck the parked cars.

During the day my mom goes to work and my dad plays his drum n bass music.

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I have 2 favourite toys. The first is the yellow monster. I am not a great climber, but I am an excellent jumper. Sometimes I can jump nearly 1.5 meters to catch the yellow monster!

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My MOST favourite toy though is a thing call ‘peas’. I can hear my mother open the fridge door then I rush to the kitchen as I know it’s time to play, “where the pea”. I don’t know why people eat peas when they are so much fun to catch. Humans are weird. Sometimes my mom puts the pea in the bath and I have a grand time catching it! It’s an exhausting game.

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When my mother human gets home after work, I do my ‘jackal’ act. I show them who is boss with my big eyes and spikey coat. This makes them chase me and I love to hide and pounce out at them when they don’t see me.

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Every night when my mother goes to bed I hide under her dressing table. They say that I squash her in the night and that I’m disruptive. I don’t understand what’s so wrong with asking for breakfast at 4:20am every morning? So now I hide in the bedroom and then my Dad has to try grab me and catch me, HAHA! Last night I hid under a sheet that was drying (it’s winter here now). I then pounced on them when they tried to get me.

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Sometimes my plan works and they forget I’m there. I then get to creep onto the lovely soft bed. At exactly 4:20am I will pull on my mother’s top to wake her up, even if my Dad has just gotten home from a gig, I will wake her up because I like her to feed me.

In the morning, I will watch the reflection lightening. As the sun rises, light is reflected into the apartment. I love to chase the light! I will then sleep all day to catch up on trying to wake my mother up at 4am.

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I am curious and goofy like all good cats should be and love my humans very, very much. They are the best slaves I could have ever wished to live with.

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We hope you enjoyed Yoda’s tale and don’t forget to checkout his mum’s blog. 😀

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61 thoughts on “Guest Post: Yoda

  1. franhunne4u says:

    Your human slaves seems to have denied you one wonderful game, it is called clicker-training. That is to show off with all your wits and your strength in self-discipline and even to show that you understand the stupid humans’ language …

      • franhunne4u says:

        Just take an old-fashioned ballpoint-pen – those make a sound, too.
        I did some training but without clicks – I rewared immediately. The click is the middle man – as it is quicker, c0nditioning the cat that a treat is to follow. If your timing in handing out a treat is ok, you do not need a click. Made my FunTom learn SIT and my little, very shy cat become a lot less shy.

          • franhunne4u says:

            First you will start to condition Yoda. Click, treat. Click, treat. Click, treat. She will pretty soon come to expect the treat after the click. That is when the reward-feeling is transferred to the click (still, with cats you can never leave out the actual reward, but you have more time to give that).
            Then you only click when she is doing something she should do. Every step in that direction is clicked (and then rewarded, do not leave out the reward, this is a cat, not a dog, not that easily fooled!)
            For example, when I taught Kessy to endure human touches, I started with one finger being sniffed. You would click, I just handed her a treat. Repeated! Repetition is important.
            Then I rewarded when she let that finger caress her softly around the jaw-line. Again, repetition ..
            And then I moved that hand even further her down her back and sides. Slowly, rewarded, repeated. She learned quickly to associate being caressed with being given a treat.

            Why do people use a real clicker when it can be a pen? Because of the louder noise. If you have a dog, you go outside and if you want to do clicker-training there, you have to have something that is louder than a pen. But for indoor cats the pen works fine.
            Meanwhile I can rub Kessy’s belly. Rub her fur against the growth-direction. Can touch her paws and caress the soft fur just under the big pad. No more panic. Just sometimes she does not WANT to. Like everybody.

  2. Pingback: Guest Post: Yoda | Scotties Toy Box

  3. mvaden1948 says:

    Yoda has a partner in crime on this side of the world (Washington state, USA) who also likes breakfast between 4:00 and 4:30 am. And then he sleeps all day! And wakes me every few hours during the night. That’s okay as at my age I would be awake every few hours even without my beloved Diavolo.
    Thank you for sharing your story, Yoda!

      • mvaden1948 says:

        His adventures tend to be out doors at night so I don’t get to see them. Now that I’ve learned to let him out when he asks (I know that he will come up on the patio and be safe if there’s trouble) I get more sleep because if he wants out he just pats my cheek until I get up and let him out.
        He’s usually sleeping soundly in his chair (formerly mine) on the patio when I get up….usually after six am. Early for some folks, I know, but I’ve always been a morning person….just not at 4 am.

  4. sledpress says:

    Yoda’s adorable even among cats. I love the pea game! My Nickel Catmium likes to get in the tub but then she just beats the sides with her paws. We don’t know what she thinks she’s doing.

  5. Holly'sMom says:

    Yoda is a sweetheart! And, thank you, Yoda, for finding a good use for peas!!! I personally can’t stand them, but now I know their true use! I shall try this out on my cats and see what they think. So glad she found a home.

  6. psv411 says:

    So here is my belief in why so many cats are named “Yoda” one of which I am a proud owner, because when cats are kittens, they are all ears reminding us of Yoda from Star Wars. We call our Yoda “Yodi” because cats seem to respond well to names ending in the “i” or “y” sound. I would not have named him “Yoda” because I have had my day of naming a cat Yoda but he was not a kitten when I got him. He gets called “Yo, Yo”, “Yo” and “Yo-wee” (the last thanks to grandchildren. Your Yoda is a beautiful cat and its obvious she is full of purrsonality.

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