Fran wrote...
Dear Fran and all,
Regarding Pulsatilla,
I do think Puls types are very careful and fussy about their appearance. Puls cats are the same, they do not want so much as a single hair out of place. No ned to groom a show cat Puls before a show for example, they already did it.
But.... why do you call this vain?
Vanity has to do with being cocky, egotistical, haughty, arrogant, boastful, conceited, ostentatious etc.
That is not the same as caring how well put together one looks.
Puls has a set of "rules" they live by with neat appearance a very important one.
They will try to encourage those "high standard of behavior" rules in others if they are in a position to do so, eg manager, mother etc.
For example a Puls cat who is a topcat, and who knows it is a house rule to use a scratching post, will encourage other cats in the hierarchy to use the scratching post as well, even going so far as to knock them off balance and tell them verbally not to do it, if they are using the furniture instead.
But as with other Puls behavior, it is not due to vanity, but due to a set of principles, a standard of behavior, that matters to them.
So I disagree that vanity is any kind of key behavior relevant to Puls. They do not behave out of vanity but out of a sense of what constitutes good quality behavior. Those are very different concepts.
It is not about drawing attention to themselves but about what they consider to be appropriate and correct. Drawing attention is NOT a Puls thing.
Again the cats show the same features:
A show cat or dog who wanted to draw attention to themsleves would preen on a show, but they do not. Instead, if the show hall smells wrong to them, they will flatly refuse to even enter it - they would not lower themseves to go into a stinky room. But it is not vanity or trying to draw attention. As usual it is THEIR standard of behavior that needs to be met to make them happy, nothing to do with drawing attention.....
Try a Sulf cat though - THEY will draw attention to themsleves, and they make fantastic show cats .....IF you can ever get them groomed enough to put on show! They are opposite of Puls in the self-grooming and vanity area. They ARE vain unlike Puls.
A puls cat with a Sulf kitten is amusing to watch, and it demonstrates another Puls special featiure: She will try to teach him how to groom and will forever demontrate how it is done, never running out of patience (an amazing feature of Puls is their patience) , but never quite getting him to do it himself.
To get a Sulf kitten to groom takes a Lach mother. She takes no nonsense, and is the trtue career mom type. Very efficient in her methods:
IF the sulf kitten gets so much as a speck of cobweb on one hair, she will give him a FULL bath! That will be repeated the next time he is caught wth even a speck of dust somewhere,. etc and in a very short time, he will start to groom just to avoid having to spend all day being washed ignominiously and thoroughly by his mom, while the other kittens play.
This only lasts as long as the Lach cat is around, however, to give him a look. Once she is no longer in the group he will get sloppy again.
Namaste,
Irene
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Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."