Not a Cat Person
My wife loves cats and her beloved “CC”, short for “Crazy Cat”, disappeared a couple of years ago and we have been at odds over getting another one. He had been in our family for years.
Acquiring a pet is a family decision and I voted no! So, I pretty much live in the dog house as a result. I have been falsely labeled as a cat hater. I don’t hate cats. I just don’t want to live with them anymore.
From an evolutionary stand point, cats still have a long way to go to be as tame, for example, as dogs. Dogs I like. But cats are too independent, too bossy, too hateful, and too undisciplined for me to be comfortable with them. They will aggressively attack anything that moves from a lizard to my leg. I carry battle scars on my hands and arms from the biting and scratching of felis domesticus’.
And, more importantly, cats are serial killers. They kill for amusement.
Several years ago a neighbor accused my wife’s cat of opening a parakeet cage and brutally killing her pet bird. The bird had been sunning on the front porch. She approached my wife as we were arriving home. Noting the confrontational gleam in the neighbor’s eye, I moved quickly inside the house leaving my wife to deal with ensuing confrontation.
With the door opened, the cat came running through my legs and into the house to his bowl of kitty food. I listened intently as the neighbor gave my wife an earful about how the cat “must have taken the bird because the bird was missing and she had seen the cat in her yard earlier.”
My wife staunchly defended her innocent cat declaring that there was “no way her cat could have opened the cage much less have taken her bird!”
I looked over at the cat where he was enjoying his kibbles when I noticed a tiny green feather stuck in his whiskers. Not wanting to incite a riot or be banished from my own house, I removed the feather and washed it down the drain. I concealed the truth; destroyed the evidence.
When my wife came inside, I reluctantly told her about the feather yet she continued to defend that murdering, conniving, guilty-as-sin, cat. Now, I thought, I have to live with a wanted criminal and I am an accomplice.
That was more than twenty years ago and to this very day she still defends that cat even though he has long been gone to kitty heaven (or hell in his case.)
I know, I know. Some people love them like children and, in some cases, treat them better than children.
We visited a distant relative, recently widowed, not long ago and I was shocked to see the number of cats roaming freely in her house. It was a zoo not a home and the odor was something else. Crazy! No really, she was crazy. She spent more time talking to the cats than she did us. Relative or not, I won’t be going back to her house.
There is something very comforting about a good cat, though. A cat curled up in your lap, a good cup of coffee on a cold afternoon, a good movie, is pleasant, soothing, and relaxing. And a cat’s purr is pure medicine known to lower blood pressure and alleviate stress.
Then there are volumes of folklore and superstitions about cats. So much so, that it makes me wonder if some of it might be true. Some, for example, believe that cats can see the energy field, the aura, around people. Or that a sneezing cat means it will rain or bring future wealth.
I spent hours playing with our cat when I was a youngster. I would tie a feather to the end of fishing line attached to a pole and tease the family cat by dragging the feather across the yard. I called it “cat fishing” and it resulted in outrageous aerobatics as the cat tried to catch the feather as it flew through the air.
All this reminiscing is making me weak. Maybe we do need another cat and it would be great to be back in good graces with the family. Come to think of it, my blood pressure has been higher since our cat went missing and I haven’t slept as well and my feet are colder at night without the cat at the foot of the bed and they’re really not that much trouble and it would be nice to be a hero by bringing a new cat home.
Nah! It makes my nose itch just thinking about living with another cat even if I do have to spend the rest of my life in the dog house.
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About Me
The life of any News Director is stressful most days... so, when the weekend rolls around I find myself on the back roads of our bountiful and beautiful part of the state looking for bluegrass music, interesting things to do, and, of course, fried chicken. I will try to share some of these "finds" with you. There are a thousand stories left to be told or simply remembered. Don't expect to find them all here; maybe just a little stroll down memory lane or maybe a little skewed insight into topical issues.
Larche Hardy,
News Director
All My Entries:
- Nashville Bluegrass at IBMA
- Marty Raybon and Georgia Bluegrass
- Curse of the Acoustic Guitar
- A Millville Hero
- Bluegrass at BAMA JAM a hit!
- Bird watching not a bore
- No Poet Laureate
- Let the Bluegrass begin
- Hurry Spring
- Alabama’s Highway 52
- Cell Phone Interuptus
- Bellying up to the bar
- Resolutions are Doomed to Failure
- Bah-dad-gum-Humbug
- A hunting we will go!
- Hot Stuff!
- My new camo hat… A bargain at $34
- The Road Trip
- “If you don’t want to make the news, just don’t do it.”
- Hostage
- Not a Cat Person
- Hollywood - Here I don’t come…
- Found: a cure for the blues…
- It won’t be long…
- Not Enough Historical Markers, I say…
- Evolution takes many forms
- Revisiting Vernon
- All I know is that it’s hot…
- I Love Slocomb
- The Not-So-Casual Traveler
- The Casual Historian
Other News13 Blogs:
- The Casual Historian - Larche Hardy
- Derby Girl - Enocha Van Lierop
- The Newby - Jessi Chapin
- Gainesville, Georgia's All American Girl - Tuquyen Mach
