Toy fox disrupts "house cat" mode

Picture: "House cat Mode"

My daughter came home with a toy red fox the other day -- one of a series of endangered animal stuffies.

The eyes seemed so alive I almost believed I was looking at a fox whelp. My husband began jumping it up and down on the floor in front of the cat, and in that instant, the house pet was gone and a wild animal stood in his place.

He bristled, arched himself up and backed stiffly away to shelter and observe. When he skulked under a bed, my daughter had to coax him out. From the safety of her arms he was shown the toy again and encouraged to smell it. It took a lot of catnip and lovey-dovey to calm him down. No doubt our laughter had annoyed him too.

Cats domesticated themselves, coming to live with humans of their own volition. Human granaries were attractive to mice, and no doubt this influenced the feline decision to team up with people. But even after all this time, house cats are still half-wild.