Cats



Victoria



In fifty years of marriage there have been three cats sharing space with us. Probably, it would be better stated that we shared space with them.

The current cat with whom we share space we call Victoria. However, she does not care what we call her. She responds only to sounds of cat food cans opening, racing to the highest level or farthest corner when the doorbell rings, and avoiding me as much as possible. Nevertheless, she is a good cat. One of her characteristics is that she trills when she really wants the immediate attention of the other big cats in her house. I am certain she thinks of as large and inferior cats.

Victoria, who we believe in a Maine Coon cat,  is connected to my wife mostly. Whenever my wife is comfortable in front of the television or in bed, or even sitting at a desk or table top, Victoria wants to be with her. Early in the morning she jumps up on the bed and snuggles up to my wife and usually stays there until my wife awakes. That use to me my task, but in bed or on the bed Victoria is less demanding.

We found Victoria through an announcement in the newspaper that an abandoned cat that had been nursed back to health after a serious dog attack needed a home. At first I said we did not need to have a cat again. But as most devoted husbands do, I caved in. Victoria has been with us now for nearly five years.

Before Victoria we had a calico. I liked this cat a lot. She would box with me and often won the match. Like all cats that own human slaves she was demanding. When she wanted to box she would not accept a negative response. One morning, after getting out of the shower and returning to the bedroom to dress she jumped on to the bed and began to indicate that it was time to play. Of course, I had duties to attend to and as usual I was running late. I told the cat, who we called Cissy, to take a hike, I was busy. Cissy went to the opposite corner, then by stealth inched across the bed until she got with in inches of by rear end. I was aware that she was there, but did not give it any thought. Suddenly she leaped forward, bit me on the bottom, then ran off saying (I believe), "Got you that time." She did not show up again for about two days.

The first cat we lived with came to us as month old kitten when we lived in Alaska. This cat, a month old grey tabby, had been part of a litter that had been abandoned at St. Mary's Church in Anchorage and left on the vicar's doorstep. The vicar's wife went around the parish hall one Sunday morning trying to find homes for the litter. I was asked and said, "No, we do not need a cat." The the vicar's wife went around to ask our three year daughter if  she would like a cat. Well, you know what happened. We got a cat and it lived with us for almost twenty years.

This cat was unusual in several ways. Early we discovered that it was mean. Talk about cats only tolerating humans, this one tolerated humans only after the human was cowed into a corner. But, the cat had talent. First, I should explain that we were not certain of the cats gender for several weeks so at first we called the cat, "King of the Yukon" after Canadian Mountie Sergeant Preston's dog. We thought that was clever. However, soon after naming the cat King we found out the cat was a queen, but we had already registered the cat with the animal control at Fort Richardson; the name stuck.

King would chase after things we threw across the room. She would grab the object and then come back and drop it at our feet and then stand by ready to retrieve it again. We would make a loop with our arms and tell her to jump through it and she did. Remarkable. Another thing about this cat, which has nothing to do with her innate abilities (other than to survive) is this is one of those rare cats that has traveled from border to border and coast to coast and quickly reestablished her dominance over the new home immediately.

Cats are more intelligent than dogs. Even though king would perform when she wanted to, she actually never did anything useful. In fact, the other two cats that have lived with us in the past fifty years have not done anything useful either. They just are, nothing more. Except King, would chase down and eat bugs. I guess that's useful.