I recently read a story written by Andrew Lang. I'm not sure when it was written although I know that he died in 1912 so sometime before that date. It was basically the retelling of an anecdote. He began by writing: "If we take the case of cats, they say little, but they think a great deal; they conduct trains of reasoning." The anecdote he retold was one of "an old lady cat that felt she was dying, before her kittens were weaned." Basically, before she died, she took each kitten to a separate cat, each of which was nursing a litter of kittens. These cats each accepted one kitten from the older cat and fostered it. After the kittens were placed with other nursing cats the older cat died. He concluded by saying: "Can anything be wiser or more touching? This poor old cat had memory, reflection, reason. Though wordless, she was as much a thinking creature as any man who makes his last will and testament."

Tonight I witnessed the ability of Hobbes to assess a situation and react with reason. I can't think of any other way to explain what happened. Lacey and Selena were checking each other out. They were about 5' away from each other and began to mrrrrooowww at each other. I was frantically searching for a water bottle because I sincerely thought they might decide to fight it out. Hobbes walked into the room, between the two and sat down in front of Selena facing her, blocking her view of Lacey. He sat there for about two minutes before he began licking Selena's ears. It was as if he was discussing the situation with her and calming her down. Selena eventually slunk off under the table. Hobbes lay down where he was and stretched out and Lacey lay where she was. Within five minutes all three cats were sound asleep. There hasn't been a recurrence of that standoff since even though Lacey has wandered in and out of the room with Selena. Neither has even hissed at the other. I wonder what Hobbes said to Selena?

Copyright © Julie Cook
March 26, 2003