The Cat's Meow

THE CAT’S MEOW

(Princess eating an ice cream sundae)

by Victoria McCullough



Colette: “Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.”


Somehow, we always knew that Princess would be the cat of a lifetime for us. We purchased her at a pet store, a four-week-old kitten, for a whopping ten dollars!

Princess is a domestic short-haired Tabby cat, very tidy. She’s got a fur belly of whitish color and white at the temples like a widow’s peak, with light gray on her back. She's got a raccoon tail which gives her very beautiful markings. She was coy as a kitten could get years back when she bounced a ball, loved noises, followed the light of a flashlight flashing against the wall, tinkling bells, and plastic mice.

She is such a show cat, of that I’m sure. We have had her pose for many camera shots, and they always are near and dear to us. Once, we had her inside of a Cube Pepsi box with a hole for her head; she peeped out for a Christmas photo from us.

The stories you can tell about cats. I suppose some of them are all about how snobby pretty cats can be. Princess didn’t take to anyone else but my boyfriend and me. She loves us still, eleven years later, the same way she did as a young growing cat.

Let me tell you about her visits to the vet. She’s always been given rabies and distemper shots. She is spayed and declawed. She constantly gets sensuous with her tongue around her legs and inner belly, but stays tame and calm. She weighs in at fourteen pounds, now. A rather large cat with beautiful, occult green eyes. She loves to eat, I guess. William gives her Friskies tartar control treats for listening, and I feed her special diet Purina Cat Chow for difficult cats with problem-urinary tracts. She seems to have improved,goes in her litter, keeps it nice, is --again--very tidy. But look out when she is about to get a shot! Her body shakes, and her ears primp up, she hisses, and she is ready to say goodbye immediately. To vets, of course, this is normal for a growing cat.

Princess learned how to drink out of a large, plastic mug on my boyfriend’s vanity. With treats, she regularly jumps up on the bed and to the mug, every night at 7:30 for Wheel of Fortune. She wants nothing out of the ordinary from us, I think. Just love. Petting her pink, wet nose. Calling her a pretty girl, a sweetheart, a dear.

Pricking her rear-end up, she looks half-blind and comically has the run of the house like a queen--from closets to underneath beds and sofas, to hiding in boxes to royally laying over our own bed. She is as curious as they come. She loves television when she's inside. But in the summer, look out, she loves to be out and about the front porch on a leash. Summer breezes take her into the grassy yard to watch birds. Anywhere we go, we take her there in a pet-taxi. She whines about it but settles down after awhile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes! Cats have an amazing history! Let's consider that for a moment.

Cats were brought to North America by European settlers. A male orange Tabby from Britain was said to have been here as the “first breed”. Throughout European history, the cat has had many cat haters, even though there are many lovers of them.

There was a reverent appreciation of cats during the 17th century, in association with a cat’s intelligence and serenity. At some point, ladies decked cats with jewels and bequeathed them their worldly goods.

Olden day writers, painters, and musicians may well have had that fondness for cats which was , at times ambivalent,due to cats being objects of witch hunts. In Act III of Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare celebrates the longevity of cats with this line:
“TYBALT: What wouldst thou have of me? “
“MERCUTIO: “Good King of Cats, nothing but your nine lives.”

Robert Southy, Joanna Baillic, John Keats, Alfred Tennyson, Algernon Swinburne, Matthew Arnold, Thomas Hardy, Mark Twain and Henry James loved cats. Ernest Hemingway was a warm admirer of cats. He crossed imported Cuban cats with American varieties believing he was creating a new breed.

Yet famous cat haters exist. Napoleon, dictators in the likes of Mussolini and Hitler, Queen Elizabeth I; Henry III of France was terrified of them. Ambrose Pierre described cats as poison in 1583 in a modest treatise. James Boswell recalled how Samuel Johnson had oysters with his cat called Hodge, and hated him. I have a link to James Boswell, at "James Boswell: A Man About Town" .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stroke Princess and something wonderful hits me. I do so many things, things that are duties so my playful interaction with her is instantly rewarding. I might not feel as good through the day, without her pout and meow. It is uncanny that I have never cried over spilled milk, always a joy, Princess is set on being special and I want her to live long. With care, cats can do so. She IS special. Her pretty raccoon tail wagging a bit, she’s the Cat’s Meow.

You can view my cat journal at

ID: 669555   (Rated: E) Cat Journal  Princess my cat's journal of whom I honored with items many times. by Feather Duster

. Entries there include: "Baubles And Jacks"  and "Cat Nap" .



(Word Count:841)