Empty Elizabeth

In front of something, yet still behind...

Monday, April 03, 2006

A Cat for all Seasons

Today was a pretty good day. I think I did too much television watching, though. But, to my credit, I stopped watching before Mad About You came on at 12:30. (I love Mad About You).

After lunch, SM was snoozing peacefully in the playpen and SE was in his bed. After SE had "rested" for a bit (he wouldn't take a nap), he came out in the living room and read a little bit by me. When reading got to be too much for him, he decided to check on the birdfeeder outside the living room window. Usually, many different birds have come for a snack, but lately, I've noticed a pair that seems to have claimed the feeder as their own. There is also an errant squirrel that seems to think we put out food in the window feeder for him alone, despite having moved it higher on the glass. It must be the bricks he has been climbing. Occasionally, when my husband is in the kitchen, he will come running out to loud shouts from SE. He is only trying to scare that squirrel away! Well, today, instead of birds, there was a medium-sized calico cat peering at the feeder. SE was excited and I came to the window to look. The cat seemed to be looking at us, for there were no birds at the feeder. She would also look at us when we said something. I left the window for a moment and when I came back, the cat had crept closer to SE in the window. Now she was in the pachysandra.
This made me think of how we got our first cat when I was little: The house where we lived had an enclosed screen porch with a door to the other half of the porch. You had to turn the knob and pull the door to get in there, and the door was always kept closed. One night, while my mom was getting dinner for my sister, brother and me, she looked out the window onto that porch and there was a black cat staring back. My mom thought it odd, since that door had to be opened, that a cat would be on our porch. After a while, she decided to bring the cat in. She had gotten a box from the basement and had a little bowl which she put some milk and bread into. I think she coaxed it into the house with the milk. I don't remember much of what happened after that. I do remember her calling one of my aunts and asking her some questions. I don't remember what my dad said when he got home, but we ended up keeping the cat. I named her Muffin. Soon after we got another cat, which my sister named Katie, after her friend.

Remembering this, I decided to go out the front door and see what the cat would do. What was I thinking? I don't really know. What if the cat came over by me? I don't think T would have let us keep it. I don't know if I would want to keep it. It's another thing to care for! I already have 2 kids and a husband, and myself! But, the idea sounds nice. So nice that a while ago I had taken the kids to the Humane Society to look at cats. I even put down a deposit to hold one (the nicest, sweetest orange tabby ever) so we could come back the next day with Daddy and see what he thought. But then you get so close to actually bringing the cat home, and it all seems overwhelming. Needless to say, we didn't bring Sugar home.
We do have another cat, who lives now with my in-laws. They're retired and they like the company, though the birds they got from someone else don't like the terrorizing they receive. There have been talks to give him back to us, but there has been a breakdown in communication, so I don't think they're up to letting him go. Just as we are not quite up to taking him back.
Still, once in a while, SE will say he wants a kitty (and the other day he wanted a dog and a cat). I think eventually we might get one. Or one might get us.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

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09:17  

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