Cat Stories

All cats just meow, right? Wrong! For there are as many shades and syllables to a simple meow as the night has cats. In fact, if you ever get a 'meow' that sounds just like that, consider you have been had (The kitty in question is either playing you for a fool or considers you too ignorant to understand in the first place. If you live with cats, or like them, you know they can say most things with that one word vocabulary, and then some. How cat lovers know what it means, all you dog people ask? I don't rightly know. They just do. It goes via the ears straight to the heart, without bothering to pass through the brain. Why do mother's understand their babe's gibberish? Same principal.
Therefore, if you don't understand, that only means you are not listening with your heart, or you do not desire the knowledge of their language bad enough yet, out of love, for longing to communicate with them.
Once you have learned, though, you will never forget, and their voices will guide and accompany you through your entire life, for better or worse. The gift of being included in our tight knit family will more then make up for the occasional funny look you'll receive for 'being weird' when you are caught purring to yourself, or for talking to animals which carry the stigma of being snobbish, independent and uncaring. But that too, is a matter of the point of view. Snobbish? Definitely. Independent? Only to prove a point. But uncaring? NEVER. Of course, the unfortunate mouse who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time would certainly beg to differ.
There are cat people and dog people, and though I do not mind dogs very much, I always knew they were not for me. I love puppies as much as the next person, but somehow dealing with all that slobbering and having to get up at six in the morning in the dead of winter, just to go outside to let someone puddle on a tree…..I don't know. Somehow, the way a cat approaches and gives attention seems much more special, for it cannot be commanded and is given freely. Granted, it is great fun to have a loving dog well trained to roam the outside with, but cats -well -are cats.
So, over the years, my little family of cats kept growing. The grandma of the family is a petite seal point Siamese, Minou. With her regal flair but sweet disposition and bottomless sapphire eyes, she is impossible to resist, and spoiled rotten. As long as I live I will never forget the way it feels when she cannons herself into my lap, landing with a thump that would suggest she is 10 times her actual weight.
Then there is my queen, Chi-Chi, a sleek, silver tabby Maine-Coon. Coons are really dogs in catskins, minus the mischief. Tall, silky, and ever wanting company and attention, they make the best roommates ever. Her gorgious beau, Nikita, is half Coon half Persian, and blessed with a pure, gleaming blue coat that looks like polished steel and feels like liquid silk.
He would look like a miniature lion with his beautiful mane if he were just born red, like the sons he makes usually are.
There are others, on and off, who decided they wanted to stay for their teenage years until they usually end up falling in love with a visiting friend or neighbor and choose their partner. Like the little girl kit that happened to disappear each and every time someone came to adopt her. No matter what the effort, she could not be found until the second the car of the intruder had safely left the premises. Then she would come waddling around a corner with a halo propped on top of her head and a grin on her little face. She must have made the connection of the doorbell and of her brothers and sisters disappearance, and decided she was not having any part of it. It is amazing how cats, no matter what age, can become invisible. Needless to say, she got away with it, for who could fight that much determination?
The Maine-Coon/Persian mix combines the best features of both races. An easy going, but very attentive and caring mind, beautiful long, silky top coats, but without the typical Persian undercoat that tangles so easily, yet a bit more fluffy than pure Coons, and without the greasy chest hair so many Coons sport. The cherry on top is the sweet round face, but with a longer, prettier nose.
All cats know who is, or is not, worth their time. So if you are being singled out with their attention, feel honored, never mind the harsh world out there, gaze into their magical eyes, open your heart, and listen to what they have to say