The Kitten and the Capybara

Gari and the kitten visitor

Something strange and unusual happened yesterday. When Melly came back from feeding the horses their breakfast, she wasn’t alone. She didn’t have a horse or a human friend or a bunny. She had a little kitten. She said he must live in the neighborhood where she sometimes takes me for walks, although I don’t remember seeing him there.

I will call the kitten Stripe. I don’t know his real name, the name the humans he lives with call him, but he has a cute dark stripe running down his back so that is what I am going to call him. Melly brought him out to the front porch where I was resting in my bed after breakfast. Stripe is an inquisitive little guy, he wanted to see everything. In a minute he had hopped down the steps to see what Oakley Bunny was up to.

Stripe and Oakley

Stripe was very interested in Oakley and Oakley was interested in him too! I thought they were going to get along famously but then I realized famous people don’t get along very well. In the photo above, you can see them meeting. Stripe kept getting low to the ground and swishing his fluffy tail as if to point out that I don’t have any tail and Oakley doesn’t have much of one. I didn’t see exactly what happened but after a while, Oakley ran around the side of the house to go to the backyard, leaving me and Stripe alone. Of course, Melly had her camera capturing video so you can see the whole thing.

Stripe gets to know me and Oakley

I am not the world’s bravest capybara but I was pretty friendly to Stripe. I had an advantage though since Stripe is not the first kitten I have ever seen. I had a kitten co-pet at my house in Ohio before I came to live with Melly and Rick. If you watch the video you can see how friendly I was.

Want to be friends?

I think kittens might not like having a big nose in their face–their own noses are pretty small–but there is nothing I can do about it. Capybara are basically one big nose. If you’ve ever seen a Kapibara-san, you’ll know the Japanese got that right.

Friendship is built on trust--which we didn't have

Stripe pretended to be brave and he was pretty good at it while I kept my distance. When I got close his veneer of bravery dissolved and he hunkered down or ran away or both (but not at the same time). I was making my friendly capy sounds but I’m not sure he understood.

We can be long distance friends

I guess we can only be friends at a distance. Anyway, Melly took him back out to the neighborhood and he hasn’t come back. I hope he does though. I am not threatened by his cuteness or his gorgeous tail and I am always looking for new friends.