Saint is mad! The rescue mission went according to plan, and before I knew it, I was cradling Saint in my arms and placing her in a carrier for safe transport. I have spent a lot of time during the past three days trying to find a permanent home for Saint. She is presently living in the designated boarding area at our veterinarian's office, where she is surrounded by abundant affection, and where fresh food and clean water are in constant supply.
So,why is Saint angry at me? Is freedom more important to a stray cat than the intervention of a Cat Lady?
I couldn't help myself when I saw Saint in the early morning hours of February 8. How could I celebrate the Super Bowl victory of my hometown team and prepare to go to the office and gloat about it, all the while leaving a starving cat begging in our front lawn? I read an interesting comment recently by the art critic Roberta Smith, who writes that what is missing in art "is art that seems made by one person out of intense personal necessity, often by hand." I, too, was driven by "intense personal necessity" to help Saint, and although I lack the talent of an artist, it was very easy to offer my hand. I know all Cat Ladies understand.
I also have realized, with this recent rescue, that my mailing list of cat lovers now leads me nowhere. We are all in the same boat. My friends and colleagues have cats already, and their perfect number at home does not allow for another. Ironically, some of the "rejection letters" I have received lift my spirits. One person complimented me greatly by writing, "You are the saint." Another suggested that Saint was lucky to stumble upon me, a Cat Lady waiting in the wings. I love when Saint gets her own fan mail: "You are beautiful, Saint!"
Surely there is a patron saint who will come forward and help Saint soonest!
Query of the Day: What is your perfect number of felines at home?
Friday, February 26, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Here, Cat
I have stopped counting how many times I have seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but I couldn’t resist watching it again on TV this past Friday night. Like most women, when I saw the film for the first time, I was captivated by Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly. Other times when I watched, I was transfixed by the film’s opening scene—a sweeping view of Fifth Avenue at 57th Street, of Manhattan at its midcentury finest.
The other night, while I was surrounded by our three “orange boys,” I focused on the orange striped cat in the movie. He has no name except for “Cat.” Outside of Hollywood, this cat was named Orangey; naturally, on the movie set, Orangey had his own trainer. The very complicated Holly Golightly is portrayed as falling short of being the perfect, compassionate feline caregiver, though I imagine that Orangey did not have to be coaxed to jump into the rail-thin arms of Audrey Hepburn. Surely he approved of her impossibly chic style.
I was prompted to return to Truman Capote’s novel to read about Holly and Cat. In my slightly frayed paperback copy of the book, the back-cover blurb reads, “She’s [Holly] the hottest kitten ever to hit the typewriter keys of Truman Capote.” Remember the days of typewriters?! It’s true that Holly is frisky and naughty like a kitten, but a kitten wants to bond, and intimacy is verboten in Miss Golightly’s world.
As the end of the movie approached, I didn’t want to watch because I recalled vividly that Holly Golightly willfully throws Cat to the streets, presumably consigning him to the life of a stray. “We never made each other any promises,” she says about Cat. But in the fairy-tale ending, she tearfully exclaims, “We did belong to each other. He was mine.” Cat and Holly are reunited, forever, we hope, and “Moon River” plays on.
I can only dream of looking as glamorous as Audrey Hepburn while fetching a wet cat in the rain, but I am anticipating my own Breakfast at Tiffany’s moment early tomorrow morning. I am planning to rescue Saint—the stray kitten whom I found two weeks ago—from a permanent life on the streets. The forecast calls for rain, possibly mixed with sleet. I will be wearing my heart on my sleeve, thinking of Audrey in her Givenchy black dress and knowing that Holly made the right move.
Query of the Day: Was Holly Golightly a Cat Lady?
The other night, while I was surrounded by our three “orange boys,” I focused on the orange striped cat in the movie. He has no name except for “Cat.” Outside of Hollywood, this cat was named Orangey; naturally, on the movie set, Orangey had his own trainer. The very complicated Holly Golightly is portrayed as falling short of being the perfect, compassionate feline caregiver, though I imagine that Orangey did not have to be coaxed to jump into the rail-thin arms of Audrey Hepburn. Surely he approved of her impossibly chic style.
I was prompted to return to Truman Capote’s novel to read about Holly and Cat. In my slightly frayed paperback copy of the book, the back-cover blurb reads, “She’s [Holly] the hottest kitten ever to hit the typewriter keys of Truman Capote.” Remember the days of typewriters?! It’s true that Holly is frisky and naughty like a kitten, but a kitten wants to bond, and intimacy is verboten in Miss Golightly’s world.
As the end of the movie approached, I didn’t want to watch because I recalled vividly that Holly Golightly willfully throws Cat to the streets, presumably consigning him to the life of a stray. “We never made each other any promises,” she says about Cat. But in the fairy-tale ending, she tearfully exclaims, “We did belong to each other. He was mine.” Cat and Holly are reunited, forever, we hope, and “Moon River” plays on.
I can only dream of looking as glamorous as Audrey Hepburn while fetching a wet cat in the rain, but I am anticipating my own Breakfast at Tiffany’s moment early tomorrow morning. I am planning to rescue Saint—the stray kitten whom I found two weeks ago—from a permanent life on the streets. The forecast calls for rain, possibly mixed with sleet. I will be wearing my heart on my sleeve, thinking of Audrey in her Givenchy black dress and knowing that Holly made the right move.
Query of the Day: Was Holly Golightly a Cat Lady?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
You Say Clowder, I Say Cluster
My friend and colleague Clifford recently forwarded to me a list of words, each of which denotes a group of cats: clowder, cluster, clutter, colony, glorying, destruction (for wild cats), and pounce. I have heard of all of them used in relation to cats, except for glorying. And praise glory to Clifford for tipping me off to the perfect word for describing my feline group at home.
Naturally I needed to check Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary to learn whether there is a sanctioned context for cats vis-à-vis the word “glorying.” My trusty dictionary cites glorying only as a verb, used with in, and meaning “to rejoice proudly.” So, who is doing “the glorying” here: the original mama kitty who gave birth to her litter, or this Cat Lady, who became the de facto mother of ten cats?
Sometimes I still wonder, too, how I, working as a solitary editor by day, became the human hub of a cat colony. I suppose I shouldn’t clutter my mind by confusing love and logic.
Query of the Day: Which word do you prefer to describe a group of cats?
Naturally I needed to check Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary to learn whether there is a sanctioned context for cats vis-à-vis the word “glorying.” My trusty dictionary cites glorying only as a verb, used with in, and meaning “to rejoice proudly.” So, who is doing “the glorying” here: the original mama kitty who gave birth to her litter, or this Cat Lady, who became the de facto mother of ten cats?
Sometimes I still wonder, too, how I, working as a solitary editor by day, became the human hub of a cat colony. I suppose I shouldn’t clutter my mind by confusing love and logic.
Query of the Day: Which word do you prefer to describe a group of cats?
Friday, February 12, 2010
Mistaken Identity
Oh, can I ever relate. Perhaps I give the impression that I watch TV nonstop. Usually what happens after I feed our ten cats is that I turn on the news at 7:00 p.m. Last night my ears perked up, just like a cat’s, when I heard a voice from a commercial exclaim, “Here kitty, kitty.”
The commercial, by Sears Optical, is hilarious. A woman “of a certain age” opens the sliding doors to her house, and she cannot see clearly that she is letting a raccoon, instead of her beloved kitty, inside. The “kitty-coon” sees perfectly and walks confidently into her home, knowing that if a Cat Lady is calling "kitty," then food must be in sight. Sears cleverly reinforces the message that the woman needs eyeglasses on an ASAP basis.
I first learned that I needed eyeglasses while sitting in a dark auditorium during an art-history exam at Wellesley College. The slide that flashed on the faraway screen was of an obscure readymade by Marcel Duchamp, only the artist’s signature apparently was visible at the lower right corner of the work. I did not see the giveaway signature and misidentified the artist.
Even when I don’t wear my eyeglasses, I have no problem distinguishing between cats and raccoons in our backyard. We took care of the cats, who became ours and moved indoors, and we sent the raccoons on their way.
As for me, I am told that no one mistakes my dual identity as an editor and a Cat Lady.
Query of the Day: Have you ever fed your cat's food to a raccoon?
The commercial, by Sears Optical, is hilarious. A woman “of a certain age” opens the sliding doors to her house, and she cannot see clearly that she is letting a raccoon, instead of her beloved kitty, inside. The “kitty-coon” sees perfectly and walks confidently into her home, knowing that if a Cat Lady is calling "kitty," then food must be in sight. Sears cleverly reinforces the message that the woman needs eyeglasses on an ASAP basis.
I first learned that I needed eyeglasses while sitting in a dark auditorium during an art-history exam at Wellesley College. The slide that flashed on the faraway screen was of an obscure readymade by Marcel Duchamp, only the artist’s signature apparently was visible at the lower right corner of the work. I did not see the giveaway signature and misidentified the artist.
Even when I don’t wear my eyeglasses, I have no problem distinguishing between cats and raccoons in our backyard. We took care of the cats, who became ours and moved indoors, and we sent the raccoons on their way.
As for me, I am told that no one mistakes my dual identity as an editor and a Cat Lady.
Query of the Day: Have you ever fed your cat's food to a raccoon?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Well, Duh!
The pet blog's headline grabbed my attention: “That Crazy Cat Lady May Be a Genius”!
Am I surprised that people who care for and live with cats are smarter than dog owners? This talking point is one of many to have emerged from a new study just released by a professor at Bristol University, in the United Kingdom.
Apparently cat caregivers (referred to as “owners” in the UK) are more likely to have advance educational degrees than dog owners in the UK. A poll of 2,524 households indicates that 47.2 percent of those with a cat have at least one person who received a degree, compared with 38.4 percent of homes with dogs. So says the BBC News report.
Next thing we know, we’ll be reading glowing references in Newsweek articles such as, “There Goes That Genius Cat Lady Again.”
Query of the Day: Who is your smartest cat?
Am I surprised that people who care for and live with cats are smarter than dog owners? This talking point is one of many to have emerged from a new study just released by a professor at Bristol University, in the United Kingdom.
Apparently cat caregivers (referred to as “owners” in the UK) are more likely to have advance educational degrees than dog owners in the UK. A poll of 2,524 households indicates that 47.2 percent of those with a cat have at least one person who received a degree, compared with 38.4 percent of homes with dogs. So says the BBC News report.
Next thing we know, we’ll be reading glowing references in Newsweek articles such as, “There Goes That Genius Cat Lady Again.”
Query of the Day: Who is your smartest cat?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Hell Is Frozen
That’s what one of the handmade signs in the football stadium indicated last night when the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl. Are you wondering why you are reading a post about cats and I am writing about the Saints? What do the Saints have in common with cats?
In the team’s early and middle years, the down-and-out Saints were like stray cats: deprived, neglected, and eventually abandoned. Yet the Saints persevered for so many years (43 to be exact), and they never gave up. They played with heart and courage, and they had guts. Even without a hard-core fan base, the football players believed in the team’s eventual glory.
We Cat Ladies are true believers, too, seeing the potential in stray cats and putting ourselves on the line of scrimmage to help them. Our motto is “Whatever It Takes” (and sometimes that includes tackles and head bunts). Stray cats are the ultimate comeback kids, just like the now-victorious Saints players.
I look forward to writing “Hell Is Frozen” when all of the stray cats in my immediate neighborhood have been rescued. I saw another orphaned kitten this morning, and I had to give him a meal. I also came up with, I think, the perfect name for the kitty: Saint. And this Cat Lady will “go marching in” gladly to feed him again tonight.
Query of the Day: Did your cats watch the Super Bowl with you?
In the team’s early and middle years, the down-and-out Saints were like stray cats: deprived, neglected, and eventually abandoned. Yet the Saints persevered for so many years (43 to be exact), and they never gave up. They played with heart and courage, and they had guts. Even without a hard-core fan base, the football players believed in the team’s eventual glory.
We Cat Ladies are true believers, too, seeing the potential in stray cats and putting ourselves on the line of scrimmage to help them. Our motto is “Whatever It Takes” (and sometimes that includes tackles and head bunts). Stray cats are the ultimate comeback kids, just like the now-victorious Saints players.
I look forward to writing “Hell Is Frozen” when all of the stray cats in my immediate neighborhood have been rescued. I saw another orphaned kitten this morning, and I had to give him a meal. I also came up with, I think, the perfect name for the kitty: Saint. And this Cat Lady will “go marching in” gladly to feed him again tonight.
Query of the Day: Did your cats watch the Super Bowl with you?
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Here Comes the Sun
While “Snowmageddon” is blanketing the Mid-Atlantic, we’re singing “here comes the sun” in Houston.
Ever since a friend sent me the “business cat” video that I posted on this blog yesterday, I have been thinking about the logistics required for dressing the cat who was clothed in business attire. Who chose the tie–the videographer or the cat?
Watching Lucius this morning sleeping on the top of his cat tree, as close as possible to the sunbeams streaming through the window, made me wonder what he would look like in swim attire. I think Hawaiian-style trunks would suit him, as would Ray-Bans. I would have to get his claws clipped so that he could wear sandals on his hind legs. Because Lucius is our alpha male cat, gladiator sandals would be perfect. I can also see him sipping a gin and tonic when he takes a break from sunbathing.
If you remember my discussion of L.B.’s masculinity, you won’t be surprised by my assessment that he should wear a Speedo.
Query of the Day: Do you believe in “clothes encounters” with your cats?
Ever since a friend sent me the “business cat” video that I posted on this blog yesterday, I have been thinking about the logistics required for dressing the cat who was clothed in business attire. Who chose the tie–the videographer or the cat?
Watching Lucius this morning sleeping on the top of his cat tree, as close as possible to the sunbeams streaming through the window, made me wonder what he would look like in swim attire. I think Hawaiian-style trunks would suit him, as would Ray-Bans. I would have to get his claws clipped so that he could wear sandals on his hind legs. Because Lucius is our alpha male cat, gladiator sandals would be perfect. I can also see him sipping a gin and tonic when he takes a break from sunbathing.
If you remember my discussion of L.B.’s masculinity, you won’t be surprised by my assessment that he should wear a Speedo.
Query of the Day: Do you believe in “clothes encounters” with your cats?
Friday, February 5, 2010
Come Fly with Me
OMG!
I cannot stop laughing. My husband is traveling, and I always knew this day would come. He has been rewarded for all of his efforts helping this Cat Lady. He has become Cat Man, as documented in this video, which I highly commend to all Cat Ladies.
Query of the Day: Does your cat fly business class?
I cannot stop laughing. My husband is traveling, and I always knew this day would come. He has been rewarded for all of his efforts helping this Cat Lady. He has become Cat Man, as documented in this video, which I highly commend to all Cat Ladies.
Query of the Day: Does your cat fly business class?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Climbing the Charts
I love when books about cats climb the best-selling charts. There was Vicki Myron’s incomparable Dewey, and now there is a trans-species mystery, How to Wash a Cat, entering at No. 19 on the mass-market list. I read in this past Sunday’s New York Times Book Review that a reviewer on Amazon describes the cats in the book as being “almost as expressive as the people.”
I haven’t read this new book by Rebecca Hale, and I realize I have no business critiquing the volunteer reviewer. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the comment. But it begs the question: Aren’t cats always as expressive as people?
And then there is another book released this week about a cat who functions as an angel of death, predicting when nursing home patients are about to die. The cat also has a gift for bringing peace of mind to the families of the dying patients. I believe that many Cat Ladies will want to read Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat, by Dr. David Dosa.
Something tells me that the book’s title is a soft sell. Surely Oscar is no ordinary cat and will remind each of us that cats are uncommon creatures. My life would be exceedingly ordinary without them.
Query of the Day: What makes your cats extraordinary?
I haven’t read this new book by Rebecca Hale, and I realize I have no business critiquing the volunteer reviewer. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the comment. But it begs the question: Aren’t cats always as expressive as people?
And then there is another book released this week about a cat who functions as an angel of death, predicting when nursing home patients are about to die. The cat also has a gift for bringing peace of mind to the families of the dying patients. I believe that many Cat Ladies will want to read Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat, by Dr. David Dosa.
Something tells me that the book’s title is a soft sell. Surely Oscar is no ordinary cat and will remind each of us that cats are uncommon creatures. My life would be exceedingly ordinary without them.
Query of the Day: What makes your cats extraordinary?
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