The Souls Of Cats

[tiltjlp]

I never was much of a cat person until a few years after my dad suffered a massive stroke in the fall of 1988. I became his sole caregiver, and only months later, I was involved in an auto accident which disabled me. Starting in the spring of 1990, we adopted four wonderful cats over the next few years, each with distinctive personalities. While the cats didn’t all get along with one another, they all liked both me and my dad. Dad and I each had a cat that simply adored us, which is always a nice feeling. As I got to know Sugar, Samantha, Smokey, and my darling Sarah Lee, I was surprised to realize how strong their personalities were. And how those personalities could and did clash sometimes. Sugar tormented Sarah Lee, while Samantha was afraid of Sarah Lee. Smokey, who had been set on fire by a youngster, was lovable but somewhat the loner. While things were usually peaceful, the cats seldom spent much time all in the same room.

My father, who lived a hard but good life, died in May of 1995, and that was when the cats showed me that not only do they indeed have souls and spiritual feelings, but a deep sense of caring. Returning home from the hospital after I’d been told of my dad’s death, I sat down and cried for a few minutes. All four cats came into the room one after another and each one came up next to the chair I was sitting in, so I could pet them for a minute.

Next, they all sat in a close semi-circle just in front of me, and stayed that way for fifteen minutes, while I told them what had happened. Then they all turned around, and laid down quietly facing away form me, as if they were giving me time to be alone with my thoughts. They stayed with me that way for over an hour, while I made numerous phone calls. Finally they walked out of the room, except for Sugar, who was my special cat, who came a laid next to my chair. They got along peacefully for the next three days.

Samantha, who’d been dad’s constant companion and lap cat, spent most of her time in dad’s room, sleeping in his bed, just like she had done every night. While she would come visit me, she seemed to understand that dad wouldn’t be coming home. Once the house was sold, I had to give three of the cats away to friends, which is the hardest thing I have even done in my life. Sugar and I were inseparable, so it was heartbreaking when I decided to keep Sarah Lee and not Sugar. But Sugar and Samantha were as close as sisters while Sarah Lee was a loner. Being able to keep Samantha and Sugar together eased my pain some, but I felt guiltier than I have about anything I’ve ever done.

But I’ve always believed that things happen for a reason. Six months after Sarah Lee and I moved to an apartment, she was diagnosed with cancer in her upper right gum and jaw. I nursed her back to health over nearly a year, and she and I became as close as father and daughter. She and I shared over nine years together, and eventually, she became the lap cat I had hoped she would be. Whenever I was in my recliner, Sarah Lee would be in my lap, getting belly rubs or just napping.

I believe that Sarah Lee somehow knew she was dieing, and became a lap cat to strengthen the bond we had. I think she wanted to make sure that my memories of her would be good ones, and that I wouldn’t mourn for her very long. While I did grieve for her, I really never mourned for her, since we had such a wonderful life together. I think of her, and of my dad often, and of course I miss them both. But I celebrate both their lives, because I know they both were special in their own ways. She really was a sweet cat. All four cats are gone now, of course, but they all hold a very special place in my heart, as my dad does.

[sleepy]

Any cats currently? I still think of Bopper. He was taken away by an angry upstairs who hated cats, and I have never found out what happened to him for sure.
I am still taking care of his mate, a female, and often had to separate them to prevent the potential for too many cats, but I preferred to do it that way.

[tiltjlp]

No more cats. I'm not limber enough to keep a litterbox clean, and don't have enough energy to keep up with a cat. But I have some wonderful memories of some really nifty cats.

[sleepy]

A couple of things that I've learned about cats.

The easiest way to tell a male from a female is by looking at their lips. Male cats and kittens have thin lips with little or no coloration, but female cats and kittens always have the appearance of wearing lipstick, even if the color of the lips is gray or black.

A cat yawns when things are okay. No problem.

I read that you get "a cat kiss" by staring into its eyes. If you hold the stare, a cat who trusts you will hold the stare and slowly close its eyes and will keep them closed in trust.

The more you talk to a cat, the more words a cat may learn to speak, within the limits of their ability to pronounce the words. My cats say "Hi", "Hello", "Wow", and "Wow Wow", and if she is in heat, I have one who says "I love you", sometimes with a semi-verbal open mouth and every now and then perfectly, and sometimes calls me by my middle name. I of course remind her when she does this, that she probably needs a cat.

I have a small kitty who always greets me at the door as I exit the bathroom, to make sure I am okay.

One of my other cats, a fetching grey femme, developed the habit of grooming me when I rested on the couch, by nipping and pulling out the remaining dark hairs. Needless to say, I am now partially bald.

[StevOz]

Cats, Dogs, Rats all pets and all other species you may chose to call your pet, sorry as affectionate you may imagine them to be they are pets, trained bred and raised for our amusement and/or comfort, nothing more nothing less.

[sleepy]

Well, not exactly. There is No Chance for misinterpretation as "a trained pet" when a determined cat wants what he or she may want for themselves without the slightest provocation from me, Master, especially when I Said "No!" and the cat disagrees.

[StevOz]

Oh sure all animals have a mind of sorts of there own.

Thus I do often encounter pets of others, most often for the first time and they are happy to jump on my lap, purr, lick my face or whatever. That said a wild animal has a flight zone because they have to fend for themselves.

An animal domesticated is for human consumption.

[Patch]

A good cat, is a dead cat, in these parts
They've decimated so much of our native fauna
around here ...

[Ike Savage]

beautiful post, tilt.


@patch,
yea i've read they're one of the very worst invasive species in oz, decimating the small marsupial population and whatnot. but i guess they're too small and clever to build the world's longest fence against, like with dingos. :P


i tried taking in a cat when i first moved here and it was a disaster. she was way uptight, meowing me awake at night, not being able to sit still, coming over to lay beside me then getting restless 1min later and leaving only to repeat 10min later, eating too quickly in order to vomit on the floors, getting tired of the toys i bought her yet constantly wanting to play, and near the end, sitting around apt, staring at me, waiting for me to come over and entertain her some more.

seems the lady who recommended this cat to me knew all about its behavior yet didn't tell me, but kept after me until i caved, even though i told her i wasn't looking for another cat at the time. women can be some scheming, honey-tongued, persistent and manipulative bitches, lol.

[Itchigo]

I am a cat lover as well. We currently have 2 at this time. My wife's former cat, well let's just say she had him longer than me.... (he made it to 20 years old). I lost mine a couple years ago to feline mamary cancer, it was not easy. She was so good, she hid every day- until I came home, that's the only time she was active. We lost her at only 10. I cried so hard. Right now we have these 2 which have excellent personalities. The white one is my old one we lost. The other 2 are characters, I tells ya......

[JonPurpleHaze]

beautiful post, tilt. (copied without permission from Ike...)

I remember Sarah Lee in your signature and know how it feels to lose a beloved cat, I've had cats for most of my adult life and lost the coolest cat in the world, Felix a couple of years ago..
That Darn Cat...Felix

Our other two cats are still awesome but Oscar is moving slower in his advanced age, Bagatelle was named by this community almost 10 years ago and is wonderful, I strongly recommend the name "Bagatelle" for any cat!

Bagatelle, the kitten!

Bagatelle, the kitten!

[faralos]

I grew up with at times no less than ten cats!
yes we had a tabby named um...'tabby' who gave birth
on of all days Labor day to a litter of seven kitties!
we had named them the days of the week. welost Tuesday and Wednesday to cars over the years and gave away all but two
we kept Friday and Saturday who were complete opposites of each other!
Friday was a tomcat and the bully of our neighborhood
even scaring the bigger dogs who were foolish enough to mess with him
Saturday was a skittish fuzzball who would crap
at the sound of a book dropped off a table!
the scanned pic is from 1979 so ain't in too great a shape
but the cat on the left is Friday the one sleeping on the right is Saturday
Friday was hardly around when not eating or sleeping as he was also an outdoors cat Saturday never ventured outside her entire life
but both of them were there at my grandmas side when she passed away due to cancer and refused to leave the room for hours afterwards
every cat is empathic and ours proved it keeping close watch on my mom after seeing grandma die
(just to make sure she didn't do anything rash was my dads answer
to why they always stayed near my mom after that day)
I love cats! always have always will!!
just can't have one where I live
so I sucker up to my gals two cats instead!!

[Itchigo]

That's no fun. Wouldn't a cat named Bagatelle have no legs?....

[mrschultz]

Wonderful post. Animals read our body language way better than we read each other, so language isn't necessary. If you spend enough time and learn to read them, you realize each one has considerable and unique personality.

At least it's true for animals that have complex social structures in the wild, there are plenty of animals where you know there's nothing going on in their head other than survival.

[Ike Savage]

hey steve, i found this to be very interesting--
http://news.yahoo.com/australia-targ...170317981.html


these are some of the latest advances and techniques to stop cats from wiping out the australian wildlife. the signature item is an implant for prey animals that is harmless to them but lethal to an invasive cat.

another project is a breeding program to help native animals learn how to protect themselves.





one other project is to turn cats in to clowns via a collar. this cuts way down on their ability to kill birds, for example.

[StevOz]

All good measures to at least limit the destruction of wildlife by cats, still cats are very cunning.

So cunning they have it all over dogs...

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and...-or-go-extinct

[Ike Savage]

interesting. i had not known about that.

and really, a recurring them in nature. that of a super-successful species, tribe or clade expanding in to an area and decimating the locals.


and yeah cats are indeed cunning, but evidently some cats are especially cunning. according to that first article, a single cat was often to blame for the collapse of a breeding program. thus, when the cat was killed, the problem completely disappeared.

[pinballdaveh]

we got 2 female kittens from a cat shelter about 2 years ago. one of the cats was named ashes by the cat shelter lady , that my wife changed to ashley. we had asked what breed of cat it is , and the shelter lady wasnt sure. of what research ive done , im still not sure. im more in favor of Korat because of the shape of the face and head. and ive heard that Korats will make a toy out of anything small it can play with , yea thats my cat. it seems quite a few cat fanciers hang out here , so maybe there are other things to check for.

[Ike Savage]

i like grey cats. my grandparents had one when i was very young, which probably helped make me very fond of them.

i would have guessed yours was a russian blue, but mainly because i'd never heard of a korat before.

cat breeds are a pretty novel thing, so the differences between breeds can be very slight, i think. (an opposite of dogs, for example)

[Shooby Doo]

[Coil_Smoke]

I figured if the thread got revived I would add this about that. I say try to extract what you can and try to navigate around the new age metaphysical WTF. Stick with it. I came away with new appreciation for these animals

[sleepy]

About those cunning cats, here is something that I've wondered about. Those cats are in the wrong location and should be caught and moved to an area where they can do some good. Maybe the farmlands where the swarms of locusts are devastating to the crops? Else, they are already in oversupply.

[StevOz]

Takes me back a few decades, when in an inner city rental I was visiting to have a drink and a cone or so on a hot salty summer, big brown roaches started crawling out from the walls.

They had two kittens, a black male and a black and white female, the male ran around and ate up every roach it could swallow, the female no way. After the infestation was over I kid you not that black male kitten had a roach gut!

That was one Bad Cat...

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/UpDown...-lid-2604.html

Meow, meow, meow...

[sleepy]

My cats, all female for population control, don't like the German Roaches.
So they bat and claw them and leave them lay there afterwards.
And the roaches seem to be repelled by the scent of cats to begin with. I've only seen one or two roaches, crawling around in circles, near a litterbox.
These roaches were so messed up, they didn't even try to run away.

[Coil_Smoke]

Originally Posted by Shooby Doo

Just what we have all been thinking about snooty cats. 3 pictures worth X number of words. About words ... Hey Shoob, Howd ya get the page to work with no words before the photos? That always screws things up around here when I do It .

[Coil_Smoke]

Originally Posted by sleepy

The more you talk to a cat, the more words a cat may learn to speak, within the limits of their ability to pronounce the words. My cats say "Hi", "Hello", "Wow", and "Wow Wow", and if she is in heat, I have one who says "I love you", sometimes with a semi-verbal open mouth and every now and then perfectly, and sometimes calls me by my middle name. I of course remind her when she does this, that she probably needs a cat.

I saw these cats uh,talking? They sure sound worried about something. I can't seem to find the vidi with the cat saying "I Love You , I love You" over and over, In a very clear voice, as it is being brushed ...That "Long Johnson" cat spread like some infection or something on the internet. Even South Park got a case ...


THEN>>>


AND>>>




More Cats Speaking their Mind >>>




I often give thanks my cat is not more sentient than he already is >>>


Or Entertaining >>>

[Ike Savage]

this would be rather heart-breaking if it wasn't just a bath.



Miserable cat SPEAKS as she's given a bath | Cat Says 'NO MORE!' During a Bath


in one of my animal factoid collections, i read that dogs can make about 10 unique sounds and cats around 90. that's pretty impressive.

i was taking care of a cat a couple years ago that would greet me by saying "het-lo." i think the previous owner had taught her that.

[StevOz]

Oh yes the cat evolved...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q54lVO7elt0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkjbMoj0JY4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klzhYae1bFw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDetwzG7igQ

[JonPurpleHaze]

Sorry about reviving a old thread and quoting myself but I still love John's original post and the thread about Bagatelle, the kitten is over 13 years old!

Bagatelle was named by the VP and Pinball Nirvana community way back then and we had to put her down yesterday due to liver cancer, she was wonderful and 13. I still recommend someone else gets a cat and names it Bagatelle. She will be missed, she used to sleep on top of my head.

Originally Posted by JonPurpleHaze

beautiful post, tilt. (copied without permission from Ike...)

I remember Sarah Lee in your signature and know how it feels to lose a beloved cat, I've had cats for most of my adult life and lost the coolest cat in the world, Felix a couple of years ago..
That Darn Cat...Felix

Our other two cats are still awesome but Oscar is moving slower in his advanced age, Bagatelle was named by this community almost 10 years ago and is wonderful, I strongly recommend the name "Bagatelle" for any cat!

Bagatelle, the kitten!

[Coil_Smoke]

We see this thread every time we visit these pages. It always reminds me of how precious our cat(s) are. It also makes me think of the bitter-sweet day I may have to write about my cat's passing too. Bagatelle ... That is a great name for an un-predictable playful animal.