Monday, May 30, 2005
cats
I've had some interesting pets in my life, starting off with a secret kitten (secret from my father that is who'd forbidden me to have a cat) called oh so creatively 'puddy-kitten' - don't blame me entirely, I was 11 and my mother was the secret admitter of the cat and she suggested the name after her favourite pet cat!
There followed a series of 'personalilty' cats for this Leo - Elke, the grey, Burmese-type stray who used to follow us up the highway like a dog; Sam (a super-intelligent little ginger mum) and her offspring Big Ben(a huge ginger/stripe tabby named after Ben -of Bill and Ben the flowerpot men) his most notable feature was a wandering eye that meant you never knew if he really saw you or not.
One day, devoid for the moment of cats, we heard a piteous mewling coming from the bush and discovered Misty, a seemingly pure-bread Abyssinian who never did get housetrained. Misty's progress around the house could always be tracked by the pervasive smell of cat pee coming from the pot plants.
Ratso was a tough white male whose favourite party trick was to hide in a tree and leap on your shoulders when you walked past until he fell off the roof of a neighbour's car or was hit once too often with a broomstick. He lost the use of his rear legs for a while and developed these huge, tough biceps by dragging his body along with only his front legs. Only diligent 4-hourly nursing for months pulled Ratso out of this adventure. He recovered but eventually fell afoul of passing traffic a couple of years later.
Then there was Kimba (the white lion of course) a part Persian, pure white with golden eyes, she managed to survive 4 moves with the family and about 13 years before suffering a terrible death at the teeth of a neighbouring pack of savage dogs that had escaped into our yard. Kimmy would have given them a run for their money though. She was never scared of any dog. Kimmy had favourites. For no apparent reason she'd allow one of the boys carry her around draped across his neck like an old-fashioned fox collar, the other she would lie spitefully in wait for, leaping out to bite his ankles as he walked past. The unfavoured one would try to make friends with Kimmy. Sometimes she would graciously allow his caresses for a limited time, then turn and bite him hard without warning. Mind you she was fickle with her affections for all of us except for that one boy. You could often see her lying behind a lounge or around a corner waiting her opportunity to leap out and take a chunk out of whoever came past. It was funny when you weren't the current object of her ire.
When we kindly donated Misty to my cat-less brother who treated her as a child and spent thousands of dollars on veterinary care for her before she quietly expired behind a lounge I was berated by an aquaintance who kept 20 cats locked up in the bathroom! Another friend had the ugliest pure-bred persian cat in existence who was bathed weekly in warm water and rinsed in a mixture of water and Chanel No. 5 before being dried with a hair dryer and groomed. A relative, the most house-proud woman in the world, had two Siamese that totally dominated the house and every seat in it.
I love cats and miss having a cat. Whatever you think of them they don't stink like dogs and don't destroy the house and they are so self sufficient and proud. Yep, I'm a cat woman.
There followed a series of 'personalilty' cats for this Leo - Elke, the grey, Burmese-type stray who used to follow us up the highway like a dog; Sam (a super-intelligent little ginger mum) and her offspring Big Ben(a huge ginger/stripe tabby named after Ben -of Bill and Ben the flowerpot men) his most notable feature was a wandering eye that meant you never knew if he really saw you or not.
One day, devoid for the moment of cats, we heard a piteous mewling coming from the bush and discovered Misty, a seemingly pure-bread Abyssinian who never did get housetrained. Misty's progress around the house could always be tracked by the pervasive smell of cat pee coming from the pot plants.
Ratso was a tough white male whose favourite party trick was to hide in a tree and leap on your shoulders when you walked past until he fell off the roof of a neighbour's car or was hit once too often with a broomstick. He lost the use of his rear legs for a while and developed these huge, tough biceps by dragging his body along with only his front legs. Only diligent 4-hourly nursing for months pulled Ratso out of this adventure. He recovered but eventually fell afoul of passing traffic a couple of years later.
Then there was Kimba (the white lion of course) a part Persian, pure white with golden eyes, she managed to survive 4 moves with the family and about 13 years before suffering a terrible death at the teeth of a neighbouring pack of savage dogs that had escaped into our yard. Kimmy would have given them a run for their money though. She was never scared of any dog. Kimmy had favourites. For no apparent reason she'd allow one of the boys carry her around draped across his neck like an old-fashioned fox collar, the other she would lie spitefully in wait for, leaping out to bite his ankles as he walked past. The unfavoured one would try to make friends with Kimmy. Sometimes she would graciously allow his caresses for a limited time, then turn and bite him hard without warning. Mind you she was fickle with her affections for all of us except for that one boy. You could often see her lying behind a lounge or around a corner waiting her opportunity to leap out and take a chunk out of whoever came past. It was funny when you weren't the current object of her ire.
When we kindly donated Misty to my cat-less brother who treated her as a child and spent thousands of dollars on veterinary care for her before she quietly expired behind a lounge I was berated by an aquaintance who kept 20 cats locked up in the bathroom! Another friend had the ugliest pure-bred persian cat in existence who was bathed weekly in warm water and rinsed in a mixture of water and Chanel No. 5 before being dried with a hair dryer and groomed. A relative, the most house-proud woman in the world, had two Siamese that totally dominated the house and every seat in it.
I love cats and miss having a cat. Whatever you think of them they don't stink like dogs and don't destroy the house and they are so self sufficient and proud. Yep, I'm a cat woman.
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