My husband, Bob, and I have always loved our pets.

Having never been lucky enough to have any "human" children, they are treated as if... No, they ARE our children!

By deciding to keep the kittens from several litters before having them all spayed and neutered, we had gone from merely 5 cats to owning several dozen!

For those of you who think that someone cannot possibly love and care for dozens of cats as individually-cherished personalities, you don't know my husband. The joy he got from our animals rescued him from extreme bouts of depression. He had formerly suffered when his severely injured back caused him excruciating pain.

They needed him, and knowing that they depended on him took his mind off his own troubles and gave him a renewed purpose in life. Unable to work, he had a lot of time on his hands, and I truly believe that our cat family saved his life on more than one occasion. Who can abandon themselves to despair when gazing into the eyes of the animals who love and depend on you?

We started to notice interesting social characteristics that can only be observed in very large "extended cat families".

Unlike other cats we had owned, who liked to find their own little spot, these cats would lay together in huge groups, which we laughingly referred to as our "pile-o-tabbies". It was as if sharing a womb and never being separated from their siblings created an entirely different social structure.

Nighttime would find us ensconced in our recliners, watching television. It was not unusual for each of us to be warmed by a blanket of cats, as they competed for spots on our laps, legs, shoulders, and even our heads! If we needed something from the kitchen, or the phone rang, the person who displaced the least number of cats would be the one who did the errand.

One night, as I was almost asleep under my blanket of cats, I started to snore. Not a nasal snore -- but the low rumbling sound you hear when your palate starts to vibrate against the back of your throat as you breathe. I was almost asleep, with a kitten draped across my neck, when I suddenly became aware that his purring had synchronized itself exactly to my "purring". Within minutes, I realized that the other cats on my "blanket" were synchronizing their breathing and purring to match ours!

I experienced what it was like to be part of a wonderful cat "collective". We were as one, breathing, purring, resting in total harmony. It was the single most peaceful moment of my life as I fell into an almost meditative state, purring along with my cats.

My eyes welled up with tremendous joy as I felt the love and support of the "collective". I knew, without a doubt, that they considered me a cat, and I was honored to share their group consciousness. Without even knowing it, I was speaking "cat".

This was years before the TV series "Star Trek Voyager" introduced the concept of the "collective". But I can tell you from my one incredible experience that it's true what they say... "Resistance is futile".

Copyright © Terece Lewis
August 15, 2001