Y'know the problem with cats? I've had my little charcoal and peach darling (well, grey and ginger, but I like her official description - long haired blue tortie much better) just under two weeks but already I love her to pieces . . . even though I have to carry her to her food dish and sit there before she will eat, even though she won't answer to her name or even 'pusspuss', even though she got out the other day and had my mother and I chasing around the neighbourhood frantic that a dog would get her or her stitches would burst or she wouldn't be able to find her way home. I have the 'flu at the moment and when I'm sick I have nightmares, and the subject matter of these at the moment are vague unidentifiable worries about all the things that could happen to my kitty. And then there was the dream that I turned the back yard into a shelter for problem cats that no-one else would adopt.

The point is, even though I've only had her a short while, I love her so much that I want more cats to love this much! But unfortunately I can't afford more cats and I figure it's best to have rescued one and give her a high quality of life with the best food and regular vet checks and vaccinations and stuff than to try and look after more than I can afford. But yet . . . I find myself thinking of the cats I left behind at the shelter - the small, white longhair neuter male, not much bigger than my Ivory, called 'ice cream', the large short haired neuter male who climbed up on my back to make sure I noticed him totally misnamed 'Inga', the short haired ginger tom ominously named Hurdy-gurdy . .the scruffy long haired black female who I never really got a good look at but whom I seem to remember as having stars in her fur (I know that's silly) - her name was Indigo. But lacking the ability to rescue these, I guess I'll go give my darling Ivory an extra hug, carry her once again to her food bowl, and watch her lick all the gravy off the cat casserole I gave her. And that, dear friends, is the problem with cats.

Copyright © Maryrose Lockerbie
October 11, 1998