One of the better perks of being home is that I get doted on by my cats. This will be the fourth Christmas we've spent with them. In fact, we bought them Christmas Eve 2002, and they spent most of that night lying in my bed yowling for their mother and scratching my skin whenever they discovered that my forearm was not their mother. I didn't like them much then, but they've since become never-ending sources of entertainment. They do cat things like bat thumbtacks off my desk with their paw or find the place in the house that best echoes their yelps, but one of them, Maya, spends most of her days pretending to be the family dog (to the passive annoyance of our true family dog). This includes answering to my call (definitely un-catlike) and rolling over on her back to have her tummy rubbed every time I enter the room.
Madison (or Maddy) is your typical skittish, paranoid-schizophrenic cat whose tail puffs out like a feather duster every time there's a loud noise. While Maya is throwing herself at our feet, Maddy is sitting at the windowsill like a Zen master watching the birds in the yard (until someone drops a book, which is when her tail explodes and she jumps to the top of the fridge in a definitely un-Zenlike way). It's these different personalities that has led me to characterize Maddy as one of the Pre-Socratics--those philosophers who were interested mostly in the natural world and the "nature" of all the elements--while characterizing Maya as more of a Socrates, a mind more interested in human affairs and discourse than in the natural world. I grant you, though, that I've never discussed justice and tyranny with my cat, and I can't find a dialogue (yet) in which Socrates enters Athens to get his tummy rubbed by the Athenian youth.
Lately I think that Maddy is starting to get jealous of the attention Maya receives, and has realized that living at the top of the fridge will not garner her human affection. So she's started to roll over on her back in imitation of Maya whenever we pass her. However, since she's still a cat imitating an imitation of a dog, she looks more like a squirrel in cardiac arrest.
...All of which the family dog takes in stride, by acting like a cat and sleeping by the radiator the entire day.
Happy (Holiday) Eve!
"Kermit deserves justice."
-David Arquette
Madison (or Maddy) is your typical skittish, paranoid-schizophrenic cat whose tail puffs out like a feather duster every time there's a loud noise. While Maya is throwing herself at our feet, Maddy is sitting at the windowsill like a Zen master watching the birds in the yard (until someone drops a book, which is when her tail explodes and she jumps to the top of the fridge in a definitely un-Zenlike way). It's these different personalities that has led me to characterize Maddy as one of the Pre-Socratics--those philosophers who were interested mostly in the natural world and the "nature" of all the elements--while characterizing Maya as more of a Socrates, a mind more interested in human affairs and discourse than in the natural world. I grant you, though, that I've never discussed justice and tyranny with my cat, and I can't find a dialogue (yet) in which Socrates enters Athens to get his tummy rubbed by the Athenian youth.
Lately I think that Maddy is starting to get jealous of the attention Maya receives, and has realized that living at the top of the fridge will not garner her human affection. So she's started to roll over on her back in imitation of Maya whenever we pass her. However, since she's still a cat imitating an imitation of a dog, she looks more like a squirrel in cardiac arrest.
...All of which the family dog takes in stride, by acting like a cat and sleeping by the radiator the entire day.
Happy (Holiday) Eve!
"Kermit deserves justice."
-David Arquette
1 Comments:
Drew Dir, I can't believe you wrote an entire blog entry on your cats. That is both the saddest and most adorable thing I've seen in my life.
Merry Christmas!
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