Reader Question: Cat Column?

Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply!

Allen asks: I was wondering if you would write a column about your cats, plus the ones you feed, I do the same. I foster cats for one of the local SPCAs here in WA.  I enjoy it very much. They are fun and always different. I enjoy your columns about cars. I personally don’t know a lot about cars but the subject is interesting. I sometimes watch your drive around videos. I used to live in Roanoke and so I recognize a lot of the area.

My reply: This is a capital idea! So much so, in fact, that I have thought about doing a kid’s book about some of the cats I have and have known over the years. Cats being even better for kids, I think, than adults since they help kids learn both empathy for living things as well as wonder about them.

And cats, of course, are highly individualistic. Not – as some believe – loners or anti-social by nature (though some are). But definitely each their own man, so to speak. Highly variable in temperament, personality, likes – and dislikes. Also their mannerisms and intelligence. I’ve known brilliant cats. So smart you can almost see the gears turning and you’re just waiting for them to say something like “After all, it’s not my Axminster.”  For those unfamiliar with the reference I hugely recommend the short story, Tobermory by the writer HH Munro (PDF here).

I have Fuzz and The Dude – two cats that rise to Tobermory-ish levels of brilliance. I suspect they secretly conspire when I am out of earshot.

Dude is a small black shorthair easily mistaken for a kitten. Fuzz is a huge Maine Coon mix who earns his name every day via the tufts of himself he leaves all around the house as evidence of his passing.

Then there is Roll – who does just that each morning on the bathroom floor, to express his joie d’ vivre. He rarely says anything but radiates happiness. In winter he is a cordless heater and comforter – metronomically purring both himself and myself off to the land of nod.

Beezy is the queen. She’s petite and girly; the most obviously female cat I own. Ironically, she prefer female humans, with the sole exception of me. I am her man. She sits on my desk, to the left of my keyboard, supervising the work. If one of my male friends drops by the house, she disappears. If it’s a female friend, she presents – and immediately goes for their hair. Something about the smell – maybe the products women use – which is her catnip. That’s her in the pic above – the one on the right, looking with vague distaste at the Roll (center) and Dude (on the left).

Note the alert and knowing expression on Dude’s face…

That’s a start… more on the way!

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