Each Day Already is a Challenge

Still haven't remembered

I still don't remember that profound thought that I should have immediately documented here. Actually, I did remember it yesterday for a brief time. But I had my hands full. I was sitting at the vet's office with kitty struggling to get out of my arms to explore. Once the vet visit was over with and kitty and I were settled in back home, I realized the thought was gone once more. Since it came back to me, though, I think this is one of those thoughts that will continue to bounce around until I capture it on paper (or computer screen).

Budroe 's last blog entry mentioned a friend's theraputic cat. Like him, I was never a cat person. My grandmother (dad's side) was a lover of any and all animals. Her home always smelled horrible, and I came to learn that it was the cats that made it smell that way.

My dad never liked cats, probably because his mother was so fond of them and there were always lots of smell-up-the-house cats around. He also told the story of visiting a friend's house and discovering their pet cat on the kitchen counter licking the human food that was about to be served. A friend once shared that a neighborhood cat used to lie in wait in a tree and pounced on kids as they got off the school bus. Never having cats around as a kid, I always thought of them this way. They licked human food before it could be consumed and they pounced on school kids.

Besides, we always had dogs and puppies around. They're so much different than cats. You can own a dog. Dogs love you no matter what. Cats, on the other hand, own you. They can look at you quite critically, while your doggie friend is looking at you with adoring eyes.

Then one day my ex and my son and I moved to "the country." We lived in a mobile home on an acre of land with a 30x50 barn and an above-ground pool. What a great place that was. Our lots were pie shaped, so that the mobile homes were fairly close together on the cul-de-sac. Our backyards contained most of our acre of land, and the only neighbor facing our backyards was a commercial orange grove. Of course we would end up raising dogs, cats, ducks and nursing sick squirrels there.

I've already written about "Hissy Cat and Pretty Kitty"  - two wild cats that ended up at our place. I've also written about "Daddy Guard Duck & the Rest of the Gang"  and "Spike The Wonder Dog" . Someday, I'll have to add the story of the squirrels we raised.

When my son and I left Florida and his dad, we went to Texas. My sister and her family had eight acres with plenty of horses, one dog and two barn cats. Then something strange started happening. Somehow, cats and kittens appeared at their front gate. My sister took them to the vets to be fixed and they stayed. A few cats died, but by the time they moved to Michigan they must have had about eight or nine cats.

All that interaction with kittens and cats changed my mind about them. A bit anyway. I still think/know that they own their humans. But I realize now that there is more to them than just getting on kitchen tables and counters. Waiting in trees to pounce on kids.

Jim and I inherited a cat from his dad when the elder Jim moved from a big house to an apartment with his girlfriend. (Funny thing to talk about a guy's girlfriend, when the guy is in his 80's.) Piewacket is somewhat typical and somewhat not so typical of a cat. She's certainly not very graceful. When she jumps down from the windowsill, her feet loudly thump on the floor. And, while she's probably about 4 or 5 years old, she only started playing about six months ago.

In fact, it's because she got so playful that we decided to get a kitty. Opera (who everyone calls Oprah) came home with us from a no-kill shelter just a few days before Christmas. We thought she was 10 months old, but it turns out she's only 5 months. That explains why she's still such a baby. She is!

The Christmas tree, of course, was pretty attractive to this kitty. Since I've had animals before, and since Pi was attracted to the tree last year, I was smart enough to put unbreakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree. Good thing. Opera knocked off most of the ornaments at the bottom of the tree and knocked them around the house.

She's a cutey. When I yell at her or tell her, "NO!" she curls up in my lap and starts her purring machine going really loudly, while looking at me with such innocent eyes. She figures she's pretty irresistible when she's that cute, and she's right. She waits until I've forgotten why I tried discliplining her, then she repeats whatever it was she did the first time. I've tried explaining to her that the loud purring isn't really getting to me. But she knows that's just not true.

Yesterday, the vet said I was right to be concerned about her. She is rather skinny with a distended tummy. They did $99.50 in tests yesterday, and I'm still waiting for the results. Of course, we still have to get a stool sample, but I think Incurable Romantic is going to have to help with that task. Our cats share a litter box and somehow we have to snatch up some poop right after kitty uses the box. Doesn't that sound like a pleasant task?

Animals. Gotta love 'em.