Simba and Binx

My wife and I have two cats, Simba and Binx. I got Simba about five years ago, a mewing little fur ball that was malnourished. Simba started affectionate towards people but as he grew older he became more and more distrustful of strangers. I attribute that to how his life started and could very well have ended, but I can't say for sure. When I picked up Simba to take home, I was watching my sister's cat Ninja. Ninja was a big black cat, very affectionate, and wasn't bothered by Simba as I was expecting but he did try sniffing Simba at first. Simba put up with it until he got to the base of his tail and then he turned around and “slapped” Ninja in the face. The look on both of their faces cracked me up so hard! Ninja and this tiny brown and black striped kitten competed for my lap too, they both wanted my full attention.

I have always left my bed open to animals if they wanted to curl up with me. I had always been a bit of a restless sleeper too, which scared me about sleeping with this tiny kitten in my bed. The fears became a reality one night when I woke up to tiny “MEW! MEW! Coming from beneath me. My eyes flashed open and I rolled over, there was Simba still mewing at me as he walked his awkward kitten walk up to my chest. I apologized profusely, stroking his fur. Since that night, Simba made sure to keep at least a paw on me to make sure I don't move.

The weeks flew by and he grew bolder and bolder as well as physically. If he decided he wanted to be held, he would start climbing my leg like a tree. The first few times his claws pierced my skin, but he learned over time to control his claws much better. Little Simba even climbed a door frame once to attack a chain. As I said in the opening though, Simba's playful demeanor changed over time too.

We call Simba our 'Demon Cat' because while he loves us, he has serious aggression with other people. Like the time my sister came over and Simba chased her throughout the house swatting at her feet while hissing and snarling. One of my brothers used to live below me in a duplex with a rescue golden retriever mix named Sunny, Simba trapped her in the bathroom a few times after corralling her in there. I thought perhaps he was getting that way due to testosterone or something so I made an appointment to get him fixed and get his shots up to date, that was a fun experience.

The first time I took Simba to the vet, I carried him on my shoulder. I didn't have a carrier to put him. It was also an overnight thing, I was nervous about leaving him, I can't say for sure why. Maybe it's similar to parents sending their children to school for the first time, I wouldn't know as I don't have human children yet at this point in my life. The next day, I got the expected call of “you can pick up your cat, everything went fine” until the part where the receptionist asked if I had a box to take him home in. I told her no, did I need one? I did drop him off without one yesterday.” She asked if I received a call from anyone else which confused and scared me, like “what happened to my cat?!” and she told me he got aggressive, threw his body against the cage whenever someone came close, hissing and snarling. I decided to try without a box, I trusted my cat to trust me. I went to pick him up after work as planned, the receptionist seemed nervous when I said I was there to retrieve Simba. She went to get the doctor who told me more of the events of the night, that they had to put a towel over his cage to calm him down. The doctor gave me instructions for care like don't let him lick himself overly much and all that and then lead me to a big cage with a salmon-colored towel over it. A technician stood by and was told to pull the towel away, I swear he had the look of “why me” as he extended his arms to grab the towel while keeping as much distance as he could.

The towel was yanked away and Simba was laying there, blinking at the light. The doctor told people to keep their distance but I ignored it. I walked right up to the cage and put my fingers through, talking to my cat. “Hey Simba kitty, did you miss me? Are you ready to go home?” The cage door was opened for me and Simba pounced into my arms, clearly relieved I was there but still very much afraid. He was growling low at everyone there. “It's like a completely different cat!” the doctor seemed shocked. We went home but Simba's aggression didn't fade. I took Simba back for his shots again the following year and it was hypothesized that he was experiencing severe anxiety which made him lash out even at me. I had him in a carrier for that trip, they had to remove him with the clam device to administer the shots. They gave him a dose of rabies to last three years which was expired this year, so another fun trip happened this year but I will get to that later.

Simba continued to get the saucer-eyed look and hiss and growl with people for a while after this but always seemed to have more problems with women if there was more than one person. The strangest part is that he doesn't have any problem with children at all.

My wife was out of town when we got Binx, our black cat. My sister found an ad on Facebook about 'found kittens' and being a bleeding heart for animals types we decided to take one in despite our worries about how Simba would react. Binx was extremely skittish, Simba was hissing and snarling when I first walked in with Binx in my arms, so I put Binx on the kitchen counter to put Simba in a room by himself. When I went back to the kitchen, Binx had vanished. I finally found him in the deep frying pan on the stove, hiding from me. I left him there, prepared a temporary litter box and cat dish in our room for him, and kept him in there away from Simba. The plan was to slowly get them used to each other and Binx to me. I would pop into the bedroom and sit on the floor periodically to try to get acquainted with him, but he was firmly settled under the bed when I was in there, but he was coming out to crap on my wife's side of the bed. He finally understood what the box of litter was for when I relocated some crap into it.

The second night with Binx, I woke up to find him curled up comfortably on the bed near me but not super close. Once he realized I was awake, he took off under the bed again. On day three, he would come out and receive attention but was still super unsure of me. Slowly but surely the bonds between us grew, these days Binx will still hide when it comes to strangers but I barely touch him and he purrs. After a couple of weeks and Binx getting used to my wife, I tried introducing the two cats again. I put Binx into a plastic bin and moved it into the living room. Once more, Simba freaked out with hissing, snarling and puffy tail. At this point, Simba had the run of the majority of the house and Binx had been confined to our bedroom but I decided to mix it up a bit. I locked Simba up in his room and let Binx roam about for a couple of hours at a time so Binx could get used to the entire house and get his scent mixed in too.

A few more weeks of that and I decided Binx was probably large enough to hold his own against Simba if need be as long as I was there. Simba was very vocal about his displeasure and wanted nothing to do with any of us for a while. I got tired of that quickly and took Simba into his room for a chat. I went to put him and he grabbed my arm and bit me hard. I looked him dead in the eye as he realized what he was doing and I said “go ahead then. Bite me. Get your frustrations out. Binx is here to stay and so are you, you're both gonna have to get used to each other because we are all family now.” Simba's attitude changed from angry to grateful, he started nuzzling my hand and his attitude towards Binx changed too. It went from loathing to contempt. Over time, Binx has become less skittish and Simba's anxiety seems to have diminished some too. I took them both to the vet recently and Binx allowed the vet to pick him up without trying to claw anyone. Simba was growly but they didn't need to use the glove or clam to administer the shots. Simba crapped in the carrier out of fear but that was the worst of it.

My wife tells me the boys will interrupt her zoom meetings all the time, either by getting in front of the camera or chirping at things outside and being a distraction. Binx loves the red dot, he begs for it by attacking my toes and when I pick the laser pointer up he starts looking everywhere for it and then back at me expectantly. More recently, he has decided to play fetch with paper balls. I throw it and he brings it back to drop it at my feet. Our cats are classified as "special needs" by the vet, we have been told by many people they wouldn't have a 'mean' cat as they see Simba and most people haven't ever seen Binx outside of a picture. These cats mean the world to us, it's very much a symbiotic relationship between us all where we help each other grow and thrive. I don't know who would be more lost without the other, the cats or us, but one thing is for certain. They are a major part of our lives and we of theirs.