LEND AN EAR A cat, statisticians who record feline facts tell me, has a total of thirty-two muscles in each ear.
Fitted out with that type of feline facts,I can now understand, to some degree, how is that our family cat or several years now - named "Angel", can be totally unaware of just about anything I tell her, while obeying the commands and even the unspoken wishes wishes of some of them. I am "persona non grata" to 'Angel" and I wonder why the devil anyone every gave her that name.
At the same time, in a physical sense, the name is an excellent choice. Never before have I known a cat to be so perfectly proportioned and so finely marked. To the eye
she is both regal and ethereal... other worldly, at times.
In disposition, manners and in associative relation ship ,she: "Needs," as they say, "some work done."
Don't count on me to do it. I'm on an intermittent schedule with "Angel",it seems. There are days in which she appears not to know I even exist. She can look right at me - through me, in fact, and not show any sign that I am present. At other times she can be momentarily friendly and even lead me to think I'm making progress in "getting to know her." She is elusive and not going to react in any way any thing I may suggest.
In general,I realize this particular cat was raised by women. there were few men in her life until recently. Any feminine presence causes her to recognize as a source of attentions, food, water, and contact suggesting security and warmth or dryness and protection from danger.
I have often wondered what type of reasoning which has caused politicians to avoid putting a tax on house cats such as we have on dogs as pets. That reason, I am told, is that the cat is not yet considered to be truly domesticated. Until such time as it is, the cat remains a wild, independent, self-contained,and very much individual, four-legged unit all his or her own self alone.
Often, in some strange way I can't even start to explain, I
often I feel I am in the presence of something more than a "cat."
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 6-15-06 [c397wds]
