cat tales

april 16 - 2007

we went to the performance of CATS last night at the arena - i took my 20 year old daughter and ray took his 2 daughters and 9 year old granddaughter. it will go down in history as a memorable evening. it was a combination of weird and wonderful, it was a combination of ballet, tap, rock, opera, burlesque, disco and pop. it was a combination of hockey sweat, vomit and popcorn and had the circus been there the day before, i am sure it would have smelt like elephant dung. it was an assault to the senses both good and bad, from the stunning set and resonant, pure and perfect voice of angie smith - grizabella (when you could hear her) to the poor sound and terrible seats (who on earth would sell tickets in a section BEHIND the curtain and then have to move said ticketholders?) i don’t even want to get into wishing or wondering why the esplanade would not have constructed a decent size theatre but after all is said and done, i can cross if off my list of things to do - i saw CATS - the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on poems by TS Eliot - where each cat had it’s own story - just as each of my own cats have their’s - their own personality and quirks - but have never danced and pranced and sang on stage.

my first cat was a tom cat by the name of munchkin - he was tiny and fluffy and playfull - and a handfull - i got him a playmate - a short haired tabby i named tigger - these two would dig their claws into the screen of the window of my basement appartment and slide it open to prowl at night. in the morning they would return - sometimes with gifts, like on my wedding day. one with a bird and one with a mouse. one deposited on the floor and the other on my bed. were they gifts of joy or an omen? we moved to a little house on fairford street in moosejaw where they came and went as they pleased. a year later we were transfered to halifax and told that pets were not allowed in PMQ’s so the were shipped off to the SPCA. i visited them each day and left in tears the day we moved. I found out later our next door neighbour (who lived on our left) sent his sister (who lived on our right) to fetch them. apparently they used to visit him daily and he would feed them tuna. they would follow him on his daily walks. he walked with a walker - he was old and suffered from cancer and the cats comforted him. one halloween munchkin came home covered in oil - apparently kids had doused him in it and were going to set him on fire but he escaped. he was taken to the vet and cleaned up and nursed back to health. we went back a year later to visit and called both their names. tigger came running as soon as we called - but munchkin was not to be found - appparently the first day of spring he was finally allowed outside and unfortunately hit by a car and was buried in the garden. tigger was still fed tuna - still went for his daily walks - still wailed for his missing friend. tigger still had a few lives left.

halifax proved NOT to be a pet free zone. every dog in it’s day had a dog in it’s day. our friends had one so when they found a cat trying to crawl in the kitchen window of their basement appartment - they couldn’t keep him. on our son’s first birthday, we introduced him to the household. he was an orange and white shorthaired and the most patient cat i have ever seen. he didn’t mind being sat on, pulled on, stepped on and squeezed - or put in a doll stroller, dressed up - tortured. one year olds need to be taught how to be nice to a kitty. when we moved to manitoba, that kitty tried to sit on the dashboard of the car until we showed him the safest place in the car was on the armrest between us. when we moved to bango maine a few years later - with 2 kids and the cat in a camaro - the carrying cage was his haven. felix was the most well travelled cat i know, probably better travelled than most people. we travelled 22 stated in 12 days, from maine via route 66 to the grand canyon, las vegas, oregon and washington to victoria bc. felix was fixed and declawed and had two strange habits. he would sit on the back of the couch behind you and put a paw on either side or your head and groom you - either that or he was addicted to the hair products. he also had a penchant for deodorant - or lack there of - and would nuzzle the armpits of odorous men - names withheld to protect the guilty - felix escaped once. it was the longest 3 days of our lives. felix lived for 15 healthy years before he got non- metastacizing cancer. twice we operated. once would have been enough. he was the first pet i ever had to euthanize.

growing up with cats is different from growing up with dogs - cat people are not the same as dog people. i was a cat person as were my children. but they had always wanted a dog. we said one pet was enough and not until the cat was gone would we get a dog. it wasn’t long before the children started bugging us about getting one. we delayed it - we avoided it - we went through a bird and several fish (the last one being named 7 of 9 - ‘cuz 9 was the max i was going to buy) til we found a dog - or a dog found us. but that is a story for a different time - this story is about cats, which is turning into quite the essay - sorry about that - but blogging is just that - a letter to ourselves, for ourselves, about ourselves - so i continue to today where our cats are now farm cats. farm cats are different from city cats. the kids named the cats Pepsi, Cola and Rootbeer among others and they started indoors at the farm as house pets. farm cats don’t belong inside but since farm cats use up their 9 lives faster than city cats. well, any cat that lives indoors - cola and pepsi only remain. so we were given josie for indoors - i tiny little tabby female - who looks like my tigger - who was pregnant when we got her. she had 3 kittens - larry curly and moe - the first two were given away to a friends farm - the runt didn’t make it no thanks to my dog. Josie rules the roost and is the only cat allowed indoors. Pepsi is a fat cat the either eats or hides, and Pepsi is an orange tabby that suns himself on the bbq on the back deck and then jumps from the rail to the roof. some days i am greeted when i fill their food dish and others they are off mousing or birding and leaving their gifts on the front deck. sometimes the are underfoot and other seldom found - but they are the cats in my life and i love them. and boy if you read all this - you musta been REALLY bored - but thank you - cb