cats can think in years

2002-03-18 [ 07:51 pm ]
Special guest #2. Anyone is welcome to do this. Just ask me.

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If you are a little kid, and your family has a dog, things usually work like this: you pull on the dog's tail, or his ears, or both at once, and the dog gets all excited and wants to play. He runs around you, and wags his tail (if he can) and tries to lick you. Dogs don't like having their tails pulled, of course, but they know that it is your way of playing, and they are very easy going.

Cats are different. Cats are more self-possessed and like to maintain a nice level of dignity. They absolutely hate having little dirty kids pull their tails, or poke them in the nose. They will run away, or fight back, or just not be very co-operative.

As a result, little kids love cats. Cats are more interesting, because they can be tormented. They know what is right and wrong, just like parents do, and kids want to see how far those lines can be blurred.

I remember that at age two or three I chased our cat around the house for a long time, trying to pull her tail. My father had to coax her out from behind all of the pots in a kitchen cupboard. I am sure that I gave that cat a hard time for a while. We ended up being really good friends over the following 12 years or so. She used to fall asleep on my back if I laid on my stomach reading for too long.

For the most part, I think that cats sort of grok all of that... they know that they will get poked over, shoved into doll prams, and, well, stuck in the sink. They get annoyed, and resentful, and you can actually see that in their eyes. But I am certain that they really know that kids will grow up, and scratch behind their ears.

I am not the sort of person who loves cats and hates dogs... they both have their charms, their strengths, their oddities. Cats, though, have a special place for me, because they really mull things over... they will sit in the window and watch the birds, but they think about the people around them. That, and where the sun is making the carpet warm.

I dream of being a cat, sometimes.

by: fishy
photo by: random winMX user