Catscapades

Do you know when your cat’s at her happiest? Does she ever display a sense of joy? A purring cat certainly appears content and joyful. Our cats act happy when they’re eating. Oh yes, and as I’m preparing their food—the two of them swarm around me, hugging my ankles gleefully in anticipation of their meal. They love, love, love it when I come in with a fresh container of grass for them to nibble. But nothing makes them more outwardly happy than when we sprinkle a little catnip around.

They roll in it, sniff it, eat it, and then Sophie walks away like nothing has happened, but Lily becomes happy-happy. She turns into a floppy ragdoll, lays on her back across the cat tree and looks at everything from upside down. She reminds me of images I’ve seen of the flower children back in the day when they were, supposedly, high on pot. Same thing. I guess I could be arrested for drugging our cats. But if you count human years, they are of age. In fact, I think they’re old enough to be grandmothers.

I think our cats are happy when they see us come home. I watch Sophie wait at the door each time Dennis goes outside for any reason. If he doesn’t come back soon enough, she cries for him. Not so much if he drives off in the car. But if she knows he’s out in the yard someplace, she watches and waits rather anxiously for him to return.

I often see Lily at the living room window when I come home from my walk. And she’s almost always on my desk looking out when I pull my car into the driveway after being gone for a while. Now it’s hard to tell whether she’s happy to see me or mad that I left. But I do believe she’s pleased to have me home.

What causes your cats to dance, frolic, or otherwise express what appears to be happiness?

Does your cat have a mind of her own? Does he sometimes (or most of the time) break rules and even sass you back. Cantankerous, mischievous cats will defy you when you say “No,” to them clawing the sofa. They’ll bite that plant if they want to. I once had several cats and a lot of house plants. Mandy, a calico, loved to chew the leaves of the plants and dig dirt from the pots. So I used a fine spray of water to deter her. Didn’t work. If she wanted to defy me, she’d simply squint her eyes (knowing that a spray of water was coming) and take a quick bite before rushing out of the room.

Things are different now. I don’t keep many plants in the house, for one thing. But our current cats have taught me to bring in cat grass once in a while for them to enjoy.

Bed-making seems to be a thrilling activity for Lily. She especially gets excited when I change the bed. This week she took the task very seriously and insisted on staying on the blankets while I was trying to remove them. This is the look I got when I tried to pull the blankets out from under her.

Do you ever get into a battle of the minds with your cat? The same day we had the bed-making debacle, Lily decided she needed to do a shopping bag-check. She was probably thinking there may just be a sprinkle of catnip inside or something fun to play with. In our house, plastic bags are a no-no for nosy cats, and we had a bit of a tug-of-war on this one that morning.

Lily also likes the laundry basket—well, cats like boxes, tunnels and other things they can climb into. I have no problem with Lily playing inside the laundry basket, except for when it’s on the bed. I won’t leave the basket on the bed alone with Lily for fear she’ll tip if and have a bad fall. She, on the other hand, likes it best when it’s on the bed. Go figure.

Is she being obstinate or what? I don’t know—but I can tell you that these times of minor rumbles with Lily are some of my most enjoyable. Lily can cause me moments of distress—like when she grabs my favorite sweater with one swift paw swipe when I try to pick it up to put it on. Why does she do that? But overall, I love our interactions, even when she’s being what I would consider a little naughty. She makes me laugh. And in the end, I always get a little snuggle.

What do you think your cat dreams about? What would make her happy? Sure, she lives a charmed life. Without you she’d be on the streets, still at the shelter, with someone who wouldn’t appreciate her idiosyncrasies, in a dangerous household, or, heaven forbid, dead by now, right? I’ll bet you just had a choking-up moment thinking about that.

(This is a picture of my mother’s cat, Smokey, using a patch of alysum as a pillow while he dreams–probably of chasing lizards and mice.)

Lily, for example, may not have had the opportunity to be diagnosed with kidney disease at a young age. Who would expect that? And I’m pretty sure that if our team of veterinarians hadn’t caught the illness when they did, she would either be seriously ill by now or worse. As it is, she thrives and she’s adored and safe. (Choking up here.)

But what does Lily want that she doesn’t have—that is if cats had the capacity to dream or to wish on a falling star or to yearn? Knowing Lily as I do and if she had the capacity, she’d dream of more catnip, more food more often, and, bring on the water—maybe a water fountain in each room. She would also wish for me to always be in the home—never venturing out—just in case she wants something to eat or a lap to curl up in. She would also wish that there is no such thing as thunder. She’s okay with fireworks, but thunder puts her under—the covers that is.

Our tortie, Sophie, might dream of an hour or a week outside in a grassy field. She often begs for grass. We have trouble explaining to her that we no longer have a lawn—we’re in drought here. We will occasionally bring her a piece of devils grass (weed) that has popped up in the yard and we buy the cats grass in those little boxes sometimes.

She’d love it if I’d open a nursery in the living room—bring in all kinds of plants for her to chew on. As it is, I grow African violets in the garden window and she leaves those along—I guess she doesn’t like the fuzzy leaves. I have an indoor orchid and she avoids that (whew!), but the philodendron someone gave me as a gift—oh my, she’s constantly pruning that thing—but never when we’re around. Yeah, she knows the rules, so breaks them when we turn our back.

Some cats openly yearn to go outside, like Rags in my Klepto Cat Mysteries. Others might wish their humans would remove the furniture coverings so they can dig their claws into the delicious fabric—it feels oh, so good.

Okay your turn. Go ask your cat what he or she dreams of and let’s tell the world about it.