My World According to Cats



Lucy



People often ask me what it is like to live in home with so many cats. To be honest, unless it is Saturday morning, the day set aside for a special breakfast of canned cat food, it is a rarity to see all eleven of them at the same time. Yes, I have eleven cats!!

But it wasn’t always that way. I was a confirmed dog person until I adopted my first kitten, Siegfried, almost 30 years ago. All it took was that tiny ball of fur curled up on my lap, purring his little heart out and I was smitten. No more dogs, cats rule.

Since that time sixteen different cats have taken their place in my home. Kissa lived here the shortest at only two years; others, like Tristan lived until the ripe old age of 22.  I had long-haired and short-haired cats, males and females, kittens and adults. The only requirement was that they either came from shelters or were abandoned in the neighborhood.

My current cat household is unique in that I actually have three distinct family groups. The Old Ladies, Lucy and Gracie, are my senior citizens. Both in their late teens, they possess the Maine Coon markings and coloration varying only in their eye color and the fact that Lucy is long-haired and Gracie, short-haired. The Old Ladies are feisty and prefer to keep their own company. They want nothing to do with the other cats in the house.

The Hole in the Wall Gang is family group number two. True siblings, Butch, Sundance and Etta (known in the house as Eddie) moved in fourteen years ago when I offered to foster care them after their mother was killed. When they arrived, the three were barely a month old and still needed bottle feeding. Fourteen years later, they continue to behave like unruly kittens, constantly fighting and stealing food from one another.

The last family group is Mama’s Family. Mama Kitty and her five children (Gabriel, Isabelle, Oliver, Lily and Squeak) moved in five years ago after being abandoned by someone in the neighborhood. Unlike the Hole in the Wall Gang, Mama’s family adore each other and you can always find them cuddled up together on the living room chair or stacked in a row at the back door watching the squirrels at the feeder.

I must admit there are times when having all these cats are exhausting. There are always litter boxes to empty and it is a rare moment to sit down without one of them wanting to sit on my lap. I have a closer relationship with my veterinarian than I do with my own physician and you don’t even want to know how much I spend each year on litter, food and medications.

But like I always said, I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning if it wasn’t for my cats. They play such a large role in my life, making me laugh when they race through the house in hot pursuit of each other, to testing my patience when I catch them using my houseplants as litter boxes. I have bottle fed them as kittens and held them in my arms when they took their final breath. Cats are fearless and independent yet playful and loving. And I adore each and every one of mine.

A Patient and Wise Teacher

The election is over. I had wanted to watch the candidates’ speeches in hopes of hearing words of healing and conciliation, but my body, tired from five hours of sitting overruled me.  When I finally got up and read the on-line morning papers; it didn’t take long to realize that my hope for unity was only a wish. Bad behavior and partisan politics dominated the stories.

Disappointed, I took Lucy and Gracie outside to refill the feeders and pick up the local newspaper from the box. I looked up towards the sky and saw the bright half moon framed by the pines. I stood there for the longest time just gazing, the election and all its peripheral drama forgotten.

In the book, The Power of Now, author Eckhart Tolle speaks of being present in the moment. Like most people, my mind is continually mulling over stories of my past and worries about the future. At moments like these, Tolle recommends that you stop and observe what is actually going on around you. Most of the time, the world is quiet and peaceful if you would just stop listening to the monkey chatter in your head.

I experience that moment this morning. Consumed by the stillness of the world around me, I realized just how unimportant all that election drama had been. The earth still rotates on its axis, the sun will again rise in the east and I have been given the gift of a new day to experience. Nature is a patient and wise teacher. I need only to listen and learn.

Choosing One’s Leaders



Three spined stickleback, Photo Credit - Wikipedia



Only eight hours remain until the voting booths closed in Michigan. For the past two months, I have been inundated with robo-calls, clear-cut forests of flyers that immediately get dropped into the recycling bin, the noise of shrill, bickering Republican and Democratic pundits and ugly television advertising.

The acrimony and viciousness of this presidential campaigning cycle got me to wondering how other animals determine their leaders.  Do they behave as badly as we do? After doing a little research I found three distinct processes. No doubt that there are countless more but what I found was enlightening.

I started with wolves; those social pack carnivores that live the forests of the upper Midwest. Within every pack of wolves are the alpha male and female who are more aggressive and stronger than the other members of their pack. Only the alpha male and female mate ensuring that their genetic composition carries on to the next leadership generation. Subordinate wolves normally do not mate and those that do are driven out of their community. I see this as a monarchical leadership process that is determine by genetic lineage much like the royal families in Europe.

Then we have the cow. Domination or size doesn’t seem to be the qualifications for leadership. Research has shown that deference is given to the oldest cow in the herd who leads the others to feeding sites. So experience rather than size or lineage is the criteria in the cow population.

Finally, there are the stickleback fish. The stickleback is more of a trial and error species who allows its population to individually choose its leadership. Some sticklebacks will make the correct decision immediately while others follow another path. The remaining fish will observe the decision making process and when it is apparent that the majority of sticklefish go in one direction, the others will follow. We’re talking about consensus building at its best.

So, what does that tell me about leadership and animals? I have little doubt that fighting and dominance occurs within all animal populations and even the old cow will be challenged eventually by a younger animal. But we are supposed to be the intelligent animal on this planet. Why do we stoop to the lowest common denominator rather than recognize that there are two sides on every issue and the candidate you disagree with isn’t the child of Satan? I am tired of the extremism that has colored the political landscape and prevents our leaders from making decisions for the good of all. Don’t we deserve better?