How do you handle conflict? Boldly and directly? Or, do you prefer a more subtle approach?

My immediate neighbours seem to know a lot about this. There’s a lot of howling and snarling going on after dark, but no one seems to have lost an ear.

Gingembre tells it like it is

First rule, man, dont get involved if you dont need to be.  See me now? I half close my eyes, it means I aint gonna fight you.  You did OK for a human, look away now and again. Like dude, just dont stare at people, puts them on edge.

Course, round here there’s always a bit of argy bargy going down.  There’s territory….. you know?   It’s like, I dont really own this patch, but I got my time.  All of us big guys try to time it so’s we dont bump into each other.  It’s respect…. like the song says R E S P E C T. The guys down by the bins know that. We’re all cool, usually.

Then again, at night you get blow ins, some guy wanders in tryin’ to throw his weight around.  Weight?  Hey look at me …  look at me! I got weight man!

First thing is to bulk up, tail up and fluff out.  I wont show you, ‘cos you’d be runnin’ away right now. But that’s the main thing, look big, be big. Then I’m gonna shout….. make ’em know who they’re dealing with. He’s gonna shout back, of course, but this is my patch. Plus, trust me, I got the weight round here.  That does the trick after a while.

Then you gotta let him go. I think you guys call it ‘saving face’.  He’s probably not going to leg it, he’ll just swagger away slowly. That’s cool by me.  I aint lost no fur, so it doesnt matter what he tells his friends.  I still got my turf.

Hell man, I also got my looks to consider. I’m proud of these ears, let me tell you. No one’s got time for some raggedy old tom cat. I gotta look my best.   I got people!  Cant come home with a shredded nose!  I might get kept in again.

 

Gingembre is one of the locals here in La Curie. He’s a cool dude… like he says, he’s got People. 

Click to enlarge… he’s a pretty big boy!