The Mew-mew World
They love to be caressed and they may often end up purring as a result of so much pleasure resulted from one single touch, or perhaps more than one if you happen to be in a good mood and feel like pouring out your love on it. I may be referring to a lot of things or persons as it may be your husband or boyfriend/girlfriend I am referring to in one of your skin to skin encounters (don’t be naughty and tend to think I do not know what, because the skin on your hand may touch the skin on his or her face), or perhaps a mother and her child, or why not your pet. If the only thing you were thinking about all this time was your cat then I just have to say that your guess was right as writing all the above mentioned things I had the cat in my mind too.
There must be millions of cat lovers out there, or should I perhaps call them ailurophiles who now purr at the thought of engaging themselves in one more reading about cats. I shouldn’t let these people wait too much or get disappointed and as such I am going to start the periplus in the cats’ world just now.
What better way to start if not by introducing them to you. As when meeting some unknown person one needs to introduce himself the same thing happens now in the case of cats. So if it were for me to try to introduce them to you I would start by saying the following things “Hi there! I am Mr. Cat and I simply love it, mew-mew! I am a member of a Felidea family and I love to be caressed and to behave cattish, meaning to hide and play tricks on you, mew! If you want to know more things about me and think about getting one like me in your house then I invite you to discover more about me by reading the following lines, mew! Nice to meet you and I can’t wait for us to get friends, mew-mew!”
I think that there are only two camps when talking about cats: you either love them or hate them. You may end up loving their way of being and the calming sensation they transmit to you or you may as well simply hate their guts as you may find them too “catlike” to quote some of my friends or at times because you find their nails too well sharpened for you to be able to stand them. Most often they end up being described as affectionate pets that rarely let go a second without making you feel their attachment to you. Even so some may contradict me as they may not be able to envisage cats than in terms of being sometimes too sly and following their own interest, but I have to ask you here: Don’t people do just about the same thing when it comes to pursuing one’s interest? The answer to this question undeniably comes to confirm that yes they may do just this thing, not all the time but on certain occasions for sure.
You may end up loving it if you somehow recognize yourself in them. As you all probably know they are quite possessive and at times when rubbing their head against your feet they do not do it as a free gesture but instead more to inform you that he is in fact pointing out his dominion and at the same time to show their affection. Much like many of us women tend to do with our men, if you ask me, because most surely you happened to see in your life a woman or a girl who actually rubbed herself to her man in an attempt to convince him of something or at times only to convince the girl or woman next table to stop giving sidelong glances towards her man and as such marking her territory. Now be honest with yourself and admit it that at times this is exactly what women tend to do! Men must be smiling now. And yes, dear men this is exactly what we do at times out of too much affection I’d say.
But, as all this parallel babbling started with cats I shall continue talking about them. There is more to a cat than just mew and purring as they are said to have the highest IQ after monkeys and chimps- and of course I refer to the world of animals only when I say this.
If not this, at least their being clean and affectionate if not “sticky” determines us to state that they are to be considered unique and amazing companions from the animal world. You may find them even more amazing when discovering more things about them. You may know that they are quite sleepy and that in fact they love to spend most of the time in warm rooms sleeping but did you know that they sleep neither more nor less than 16 hours each day out of the 24 hours? Quite a while if we were to think that in fact they spend most of their life sleeping! Yet, if we were to think that most of us love to sleep too, perhaps not 16 hours a day since we have to work in order to obtain the much desired and much appreciated subsistence money, it may come as no surprise when hearing that out of seven years of life a cat spends only two years awake.
Not only that cats love to sleep but they also love to play hide and seek with you and keep hiding in all the corners of the house or in any empty box they may happen to find around the house or at times as they may feel like playing even under rugs or blankets. When being discovered there they may look like saying “Oh, finally you found me! Let’s play!” The funny thing comes when considering the fact that in fact the cat doesn’t see you as a man but rather as a big cat, some sort of play mate. Funny isn’t it? If only you too had whiskers, imagine what an appearance you would have made when showing up at a masked party! Yet, talking about whiskers I have to say that if it ever crossed your mind when you were little to play the barber’s role or perhaps the role of a hair-stylist and just felt the deep inner need to cut the poor kitten’s or perhaps cat’s whiskers then I cannot but hope that there was someone there close to you to stop you. The cat’s whiskers aren’t there just for looks as it happens in most cases with men and their moustache or goatee but they have their own role namely that of deciding whether the space they are entering is big enough for them. Now you probably understand my previous worrying.
Every cat is unique as in case you didn’t know much like it happens with us and our fingerprints they too possess prints, coming not from their paws as some of you may hastily rush to say but from their nose. Yes, you have read well, their nose! And mentioning this fact I also have to say that each cat’s nose has its own unique print. As such, if you happened to consider your cat unique from various reasons then you should find out that you were right!
How about a cat parade? If you happened to read more of my articles then you probably know that I have some kind a fantasy if I may ironically say so, a fantasy in which most of the time I keep lining up animals in an attempt to outline their physical traits that make them remarkable, even more remarkable than they already were to many of us. And of course cats will not fail to do just this, line up in front of you in all their splendour. Known across the world under such names as “chat” in French, “katze” in German, “kitte” in Arabic countries, “neko” in Japanese or “gato” in Spanish, or perhaps “pisica” in Romanian – they are still envisaged as the mew mew animals. Most often what attracts our attention towards a cat are its eyes and its color and size at well. Kittens are often labeled as being cute and sweet as they are “petit” as the French might say, cats are labeled as furry if they happen to have a much envied fur, either tousled by their masters in an artistic endeavor to make them even more admired or tousled by nature itself. If you happen to dislike or perhaps not agree with the saying which says that small bottles are the ones carrying in them stronger essences and tend to think that everything stands in the size of a thing or creature then you should perhaps be the owner of a cat belonging to the breed called Ragdoll, mainly because they became famous for their largeness. If on the contrary you happen to find small creatures cute and you feel like protecting them then you should be the owner of a cat belonging to the Singapura breed.
When it comes to the shape of eyes it has been discovered that cats can be the owners of either round, almond or slanted eyes. It may have happened to you too to notice at some point a woman who happened to have the eyes similar to those of a cat; the impression left on you must have been caused primarily by the shape of those eyes. Did it happen to you too to see such eyes in a woman or am I just babbling nonsense here?
Talking about eyes I have to say that much like it happens with humans and their babies who happen to have a bluish color in their eyes (at least this is what I have heard and seen at some recently born children), this appears to be the situation of cats too that have blue eyes when being born and further on when growing up the color may undergo some changes. It is precisely the color of their eyes that may conquer your heart and determine you to take the kittens at home.
As I mentioned at some point a parade, a cat parade let’s try to see what is hidden to our eyes. Most surely you noticed by now that cats do not have shoulder blades. What you probably do not know is the fact that even though their skeletons are similar to ours they have only around 245 bones. You probably know that they have a sharp hearing yet did you know that they can rotate their ears a full 180 degrees? Amazing fact that makes these tiny creatures amazing too! Yet, there are more amazing facts when it comes to cats. Did you notice that most cats do not have eyelashes? It may be so, yet they are perfectly capable to see in the heavy darkness of the night and all this due to the reflective layer situated behind their retina. It is precisely this layer that “gives the green light” if I may say so to even more light to pass into the retina.
If you ever wondered why do cats simply love to sit in warm places then perhaps the answer is to be found in the fact that a cat’s normal body temperature is somewhere around 101.5 degrees. Imperceptibly higher than ours isn’t it? I now remember that when I was a child and I went to my grandmother’s house I used to sleep on the stove and most of the times the cat joined me there and I certainly do remember its unforgivable purring sound. I say unforgivable because cats are the only animals which emit this sound which is resembled by many to that of an idle diesel engine. Did you know that cats can in fact purr at around 26 cycles per second? Well, not only that they can do this but they just do it either because they feel happy or because they may happen to be frightened or injured.
You most probably were not aware up to now of the fact that cats can be either right or left -pawed if I may say so. Even so it was discovered that about 40% of the cats are ambidextrous. Now take a look at your cat and decide if you have an ambidextrous or perhaps a left or right-pawed cat and as soon as you notice this try shaking its paw in an attempt to say hello to her. Now stop smiling and get serious, it is all about your cat!
What about the cleansing process so carefully prepared by your cat? Did you know that a cat spends about 30% of its time grooming itself? Now just imagine the amount of energy being wasted while doing this! Quite an amount if we were to think about the fact that these pets sleep 16 hours each day! If we were to transform cats into dwarves then most certainly they would turn out to be the sleepy dwarf. Now that I mentioned grooming I should also mention the spikes placed by nature on the cat’s tongue. They are quite helpful in their grooming activities and they are precisely what make one surrender the hand to feel one more time the cat’s tiny tongue touching his skin. It may sound pretty weird yet the sensation being quite strange admit you wanted to experience it one more time. Am I the only crazy person here or is there anyone joining me?
Now I shall say a few words about their vocal abilities. With all that mew-mew here, mew-mew there it is no wonder that these creatures have neither more nor less than over 100 vocal sounds. Surprisingly or not, dogs have only 10 such vocal sounds. Though I think you most certainly happened to hear a cat “in fire” due to the “burning desire”, if I may express myself like this, to mate. So, no surprise here!
Instead what may come as a surprise or not is the fact that your cat comes to be an excellent “reader” of your moods and not only this but these moods may also influence them as well. So, if you happen to notice that your cat has gone crazy you should perhaps try to calm it down and what better way to do this if not letting her feel loved!
How do these pets reward your affection? Well, first and most important they may help you improve your health state as it was discovered that people who own pets happen to be less stressed and suffer fewer heart attacks and at the same time prolong their lives with a few years. So, if you are not one of the estimated 5 million cat owners go buy one! Simply having such a pet may change your life! Now don’t be surprised if the cat brings at your feet a dead bird or a mouse; the reason your cat does this is to reward you for your good care and affection. Isn’t this funny enough to make you smile? Think about this gift coming from your cat as the most unusual one you have ever received.
And if you happen to dislike cats you should perhaps become acquainted with the words of Faith Resnick who said that “People that hate cats will come back as mice in their next life.” Can this be true? I honestly do not know, yet we should perhaps all be clear-sighted. I cannot but hope that you noticed the irony in the above written words.
Now that I am about to end this trip undertaken in the mew- mew world I am going to mention that what I like most about cats are their eyes and the balls of their paws which resemble a pillow and of course the whiskers which I many times happen to find funny. Not to mention here their tail which at times triggers the mean nature in children as you most certainly happened to see a child pulling a cat’s tail. Talking about what I like and dislike in cats it’s your turn now to tell me what you like and if there is something you dislike in cats. I shall be patiently waiting for your answer!
