You Gotta Love Cats

I love Cats!! I find them infinitely beautiful, amusing, fascinating, and sometimes frustrating. As I write this, one of my cats is reclining on my lap and another is trying to move her out and take it for himself. The lap is prime territory; it’s the kitty version of calling shotgun. I also have several feline clients; each one is unique and so amusing in their own special way. Thought I’d write about a few of them.

On weekday afternoons, I take Dina out for a walk or an outing. Obviously, Dina is a dog, but she has two kitty brothers, Zack and Max. They are both very sweet boys and the polar opposites in personality.

Zack is a clown. He’ll do somersaults down the stairs or some other silly thing for attention. It works; he’s so cute you have to stop and pet him. If he were a human, he’d be a comedian. Always doing something to get a laugh. Max is just as sweet and friendly, but also reserved and dignified. A human Max would be an intellectual type, maybe a professor. He’s ever so charming in his own subtle way. Max would never think of doing the silly stuff for attention, he’s way too cool for that. I adore them both.

I once spent half an hour looking all over the house for Zack. I looked in all the rooms in the house, under, behind and on top of furniture, cabinets, and beds, and in all the closets. You really get to know a person’s home when you go on a cat search in it… LOL! I finally found him, locked up in a closet that, until then, I didn’t know existed. I was soooooo relieved to find him. When I told his mom about it, she said it’s happened before; he sneaks in there to sleep and then gets locked in. Now I know where to look first the next time I can’t find him.

One of the sweetest and most tolerant cats I know is Cody. He’s always happy to see me. I think it’s amazing that Cody so friendly and welcoming of me, since I have to hurt him every other time he sees me. Cody has medical issues and needs Sub Q fluids every other day. This requires inserting a large needle into the skin on his back, and then he has to hold still for several minutes while the fluids slowly drip into him. He obviously hates this procedure, I can feel him steeling up for it when I lift up his skin and then flinching when I insert the needle. I hate it too! When it’s finished, his back feels like a furry half filled water balloon. He’s a total trooper; he just hunkers down in his bed and waits for it to be over. While he does verbalize his displeasure, he never tries to bite or scratch. He doesn’t even try to get away, well most of the time. When I’m ready to leave, he’s happy to let me pick him up to say good-bye. Cody is a down to earth kind of guy and he takes life as it comes. I think his human alter ego would be a farmer.

Most of my feline clients really like me, and then there’s Tuna. We have a love/hate relationship… I love him, and he hates me. The first couple times I visited with Tuna, he hid until I put out his food, and then left to walk the dogs. Tuna LOVES food, he would eat, and then hide again when we got back. I only caught glimpses of him dashing behind the closest piece of furniture. However, Tuna is a tough guy, who doesn’t intimidate easily. He soon stopped hiding and now he orders me around. While I’m fixing his meals, he stands nearby and orders me to hurry up. He still doesn’t like me and tells me so continuously. Tuna has a well-developed range of nasty sounding growls and hisses, which he freely demonstrates. He’s not afraid to take a swipe at me, just to let me know he’s the boss. Tuna’s human job would be as a Marine Drill Sergeant. I really like Tuna; his grouchy attitude cracks me up. Although I try not to let him know I’m secretly laughing at him, he might make me do push ups… LOL!