Huh. I'm worried. My fella, a cat person, is moving in with me, and wants a dog. I'm a dog person, and am stumping for a cat. I haven't had one since I was a kid - do they really get all up in the furniture that way? I thought a cat's tricks were limited to pouncing on toes just before the alarm goes off, running from corner to corner of the apartment in an inexplicable frenzy, and shitting just outside the box. Sure, they hover, but do they also pun?
We just bought a bunch of stuff at Ikea, too. Note that moderncat likes the Ikea.
I really like some of the kitteh stuff there, but... dude can you really not make a cat tree that costs less than $200? Hell, I think I could make one myself for a fraction of that cost. It would be nicer than the multiply-reupholstered wibbly $30 one in my basement that looks all ratty but is loved by me kittens...
Dracula’s Housecat
—Anna George Meek
More lithe I am, and living,
than he who also hunts by night.
We whisper the fields where titmice quiver;
we sip black water from the kills.
I leap the grass blades, the air unsheathed,
moon the shape of my eye. He's quick
for a little bat, but I feast first:
mortality coils in my haunches.
I eat and bare my belly in bloodroot
to tease the lean eagles who desire me.
And still, the bat is suckling his corpse.
I would rip off his wings and roll his soul
immortally between my paws,
but he alone lets me in before dawn
to climb the castle drapes. Later,
I rapture in sunlight while he sleeps
in his box—which I have only once
misused. I love my warm body thrumming.
I love my delicious short life.
Posting this here because it's a neat poem and nobody ever reads the poetry thread anymore.
Happy (past due) Halloween!
which I have only once misused
It's poetic 'cause it's true!
I used to live quite close to Montmartre cemetery. There was a cat rescue place on our street: they'd catch feral cats at Montmartre (of which there were 100s), sterilize and tattoo/chip them, then let them free in the cemetery. They also had found domestic cats/kittens up for adoption and these would sit in little baskets in the window which was arranged as a set of shelves. Very sweet.
Here's the history of L'ecole du chat. (warnings: Popunder adverts, text in French)
more animals