Caturday

Two things about my magnificent beasties, Coco and Rocco:

1) They both exude calm – it radiates off of them. OK, not always.  

Not when Coco is up for a big game of Catch Me if You Can or when she’s involved in a pitched battle with my knitting needles.

Not when Rocco’s intently focused on waking me up. He nudges my cheek then jumps over my head and starts pushing at the back of my head. He then hops over me and starts in with the face taps again. Back and forth, up and over and then again. This can go on for as much as 30 minutes – longer if he decides to take a break. It occurs to me that, besides being determined to get my lazy ass outta bed, he’s playing. Rocco, stern, ex-feral, jungle warrior boy is playing!

Still and all…

The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.
~Jules Renard

I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.
~Eckhart Tolle

I’ve been trying to recapture the state of serenity that I experienced in the lagoon. Seems to me that just sitting with Coco purring on my lap or with Rocco at my side rumblingly humming, I can come damn close to that floating Silica infused tranquillo.

2) Getting a pic of Rocco is NO easy feat. If I’m in the room with him (and not sitting on the bed reading), he’s in constant motion as though he’s thinking “What’s up? What are you gonna do next? Can I help? Where ya headed? How's 'bout a treat?"  Capturing a  decent snap of Coco, on the other hand, involves waiting for her to stop bathing. If she were human, I’d need to either put in a second bathroom or shower over at Jen’s.

I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It’s not. Mine had me trained in two days.
~Bill Dana

As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat.
~Ellen Perry Berkeley

Which brings this cute bit to mind: 21 People Who Thought They Didn't Have A Cat But Were Wrong

The phrase ‘domestic cat’ is an oxymoron.
~George Will

Yup. Have you seen Yasmine Surovec's comic Cat versus Human? Spot on.

When my cats aren't happy, I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even.
~Penny Ward Moser  (probably but it’s also, strangely and rather implausibly, been attributed to Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Adlai Stevenson, while Governor of Illinois, vetoed of a bill passed by the Illinois Legislature which would’ve mandated that all cats stay indoors. All cats would have to be house cats.

“…I cannot agree that it should be the declared public policy of Illinois that a cat visiting a neighbor's yard or crossing the highway is a public nuisance. It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming. Many live with their owners in apartments or other restricted premises, and I doubt if we want to make their every brief foray an opportunity for a small game hunt by zealous citizens— with traps or otherwise. I am afraid this Bill could only create discord, recrimination and enmity. Also consider the owner's dilemma: To escort a cat abroad on a leash is against the nature of the cat, and to permit it to venture forth for exercise unattended into a night of new dangers is against the nature of the owner. Moreover, cats perform useful service, particularly in rural areas, in combating rodents— work they necessarily perform alone and without regard for property lines.

We are all interested in protecting certain varieties of birds. That cats destroy some birds, I well know, but I believe this legislation would further but little the worthy cause to which its proponents give such unselfish effort. The problem of cat versus bird is as old as time. If we attempt to resolve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problems of dog versus cat, bird versus bird, or even bird versus worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency.

For these reasons, and not because I love birds the less or cats the more, I veto and withhold my approval from Senate Bill No. 93. “ (source)

What greater gift than the love of a cat?
~Charles Dickens