Subject: Getting used to the cat
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2004 19:05:45 -0400

Is there ever a point when you finally get used to your cat?  I've had
Betty for over a year now, and I haven't gotten used to it.

Every day I spend with Betty feels like the very first day.  When she
strolls into the room, I'm just stunned by how beautiful and catlike
she is.  When I stroke her fur, I can hardly believe how soft she is,
even though it's the same fur I petted yesterday, and the day before
that.  When I pick her up and hold her, it always seems like it's been
ages since I've given her a hug.

I just don't know if I'll ever get used to having Betty.  She's not
like anything else in my life.  She seems miraculous, maybe even
divine.  Her nose is so cool and moist.  Her paws are so supple and
smooth.  Looking into her bright, bright eyes is like gazing at stars
in a sky made of gold.  I don't know if I'll ever get used to having a
cat.

Subject: Re: Did I punch Betty??
Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 20:04:33 -0400

"Adrian" <a...@bigfoot.com> wrote:

She is, but my observation is that it's because cats in general are
too perfect to be real. :)  Why are they so perfectly soft?  Why are
they so perfectly purry?  Why are they so perfectly whiskered?

A cat is not really an animal, vegetable, or mineral.  A cat is more
like an abstract concept, an ideal that curiously appears to have a
solid form and substance.

The cat is on a different plane of reality.

Other non-cat objects and beings are, what they are.  For example,
when I hold a stone, I can tell that it has color and texture, and my
perception assures me that the stone has an independent reality.
However, a cat is completely different - a cat is not merely what IS,
but a cat is precisely what it should be.

When I pet Betty, she is as soft as I would like her to be.  When she
paws at me, I am pleased as punch (no pun intended), even though I
didn't realize until she did it that I wanted to be pawed at that
moment.

Because cats are so fundamentally different from anything and
everything else, I just can't get used to them.  Whenever I see Betty,
it's like the very first time, and I am stunned.

Subject: Broken whiskers and gestures
Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 13:18:29 -0400

"Susan M" <Sus...@shaw.ca> wrote:

Oh, I'm around from time to time, although I've lost all hope of
catching up on the posts. :)

Betty is fine, although I notice that she keeps coming to me with
broken whiskers.  I wonder if anyone else has experienced this?  They
usually seem to happen on the left side of her snout, which is the
side she uses most to mark things.  She must be pressing too hard.

As I've become more accustomed to cat language, I've found that Betty
is actually very expressive, and gives me a lot of attention.  In her
own way, she's constantly talking to me, through meows, the movement
of her tail, the earnestness of her gaze, the paw touches, and the
constant following.

On my lap, the constant purr, and sigh and outstretching of paws.

I anthropomorphize some of Betty's gestures with terms I picked up
here.  When she puts her front paws on my thigh or carpet and
streeetches with her head bowed low, that's a "curtsey" (this was from
Hazel Az).  When she deliberately looks at me and rubs an eye or ear,
that's a "salute" (this one's from Fletcher Glenn).

Betty has become a part of my being.  There are different physical and
metaphysical aspects to each of us, and we give these names - a body,
a mind, a soul, a spirit.  Some of us have another aspect - a cat, or
cats.

My mind, my body, my soul, my spirit, my cat.

Unlike the other aspects, the cat is external and a peer.  When a cat
comes to you, so furry and warm and full of love, the whole becomes
greater than the sum of the parts.  Where there was once a hoomin and
a cat, there is now a hoomin, a cat, and the LOVE that is born between
them, and 1 + 1 becomes 3.

Like some of the other parts, like the soul, you wish that the cat
would be a part of you that is eternal and lives on after you die,
although from experience, we know that it is more often the opposite
that happens.

I thoroughly enjoyed these. Thanks for reposting them.

Yes, I understand, and I know you're hurting terribly.  It is a terrible
pain when you lose such a dear creature, and they do know how to worm their
way into your heart.  I hope that someday, maybe soon, you will find another
wonderful relationship with another cat.  It won't be Betty, and it won't
replace Betty, but it will help to fill the hole that you are currently
feeling in your life.  Some people feel that they are being disloyal to a
beloved pet if they love another.  I don't feel that way.  Love is infinite.
Loving another doesn't take away any of the love you felt, and feel, for
Betty.  Nothing will ever do that.  What it will do is add still another
dimension to your life, just as Betty did originally.

Purrs,
Joy

Your descriptions of Betty help us all see our own cats in a more
poetic way. You have a beautiful soul that Betty appreciated.

--
CATherine

...> I tried to write about the magic, and the wonder, and the happiness,
although not always successfully.  ..

Tak,
Betty not only had you under her spell, the magic came through in your
beautiful writing and she successfully charmed us all.
Annie