Cats Meoooow

by Chuck RitenouR

Most of my inner circle of close friends own dogs. At the very present, I do not own a cat. My last cat, Kali a beautiful calico chose to live with my ex-wife over living with me in my 2001 Dodge Neon. Can you blame her?

I have had the pleasure of having a toy poodle and a Cockapoo as companions. The poodle died about 19 years ago and the Cockapoo ran off with the neighbors wife to North Carolina. As a young boy of 12, I was adopted by a stray german shepherd.When my family moved, he adopted my aunt who lived just up the road. My last wife, owned two pitbulls. They were very friendly outdoor dogs and would greet me with much fanfare when I fed them. I am not an anti-dog person.

There are many reasons I have come to perfer cats. The first cat I remember was "Old Tom" a stray that showed up at my grandfather's house in Fort Valley, Virginia and decided he liked Gramma's cooking. I was about five years old. While watching a Disney movie on woodchucks, Tom would paw the the black and white TV screne and walk behind it looking for the critters. Every now and then Tom would jump up in my lap and allow me to pet him. I loved that old rascal.

I've had many. many cats since then. I love the way cats are independant and "need" very little attention. They will eat when they're hungry without any extra fuss, are very easily trained to a litter box and when they want affection, they are very affectionate. They spend most of their day sleeping in the sun just like me. They are very curious. I had a black cat, "Buff". I lived next the Shenandoah River back then. Our back yard stopped at the river. There was a huge tree with a "perch board" nailed to it. Buff would spend a great part of her day watching minnows swimming below from the perch. Buff was an "outdoor/indoor" cat. She seldom used the litter box prefering the great outdoors. Occasionally, Buff would leave us some small dead animal on the porch by the deck door (the head was usually chewed up) just to tell us how much she loved us.

Another great cat was "Woogie". We got him from a couple we knew that worked at Lansdowne Conference Resort in Ashburn, Virginia. They were both chefs and had transferred to a property in Texas. They would have to stay on property and could no longer have a pet. Woogie was very skidish at first, but after a few weeks allowed us to keep him. My youngest daughter, Megan was a toodler in pampers at the time. Woogie would hide behind the couch and wait for Megan to walk by. He'd run up behind her and swap her on the butt, then dash behind the couch and prepare for his next attack. Megan would squeal with delight. Woogie lived a very long time and I still miss him.

I could go on and on with stories of the cats that have allowed me to share a part of their lives. I have had more cats than wives. As I said before, cats will let you know when they want something. You never have to be able to guess or try to read their minds. If they want or need attention or affection, they will let you know in no uncertain terms. It has been said that cats were once worshipped as Gods and that they haven't forgotten that.