Cat House

 

The family [Brownie is missing]

There are 5 cats at home now - Cleopatra and her kittens. There were seven until last week. Two kittens have been adopted. So I'm left with Denny (Dennis the Menace), Dessy (Desdemona), Brownie (Elizabeth Barret Browning), and the latest arrival Nora (named after the heroine of Ibsen's A Doll's House.

When I posted a pic of these cats in Facebook yesterday, a friend commented on the personality traits that differentiate cats from the very loyal canines. That comment led me to this post. 

There's no comparison between cats and dogs. Cats are royal while dogs are servile. Opposite poles. Christopher Hitchens put it best when he said that if you give food and shelter to a dog, the dog will think you are god and if you do the same to a cat, the cat will think it is god. If you want to hear it a little more comically, here is Bill Dana (American comedian): "I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It’s not. Mine had me trained in two days."

The regality of cats is unique unlike the servile loyalty of the canines. Cleopatra is quite a contrast to her namesake in history though she is quite as royal. She littered two times by the time she was a year-and-a-quarter old and both the times she got me to make a special arrangement inside the house for the royal litter. She refused whatever arrangements I had made outside including in a very secluded and sheltered area of my terrace. Every time I made an arrangement I would take Cleo to see it and tell her, "Come on, now, this is good enough. Go ahead and do the job." She would examine the arrangement in sufficient detail and then give me a look of contemptuous disapproval. 

Cleopatra with Antony in their younger days

Cleopatra's looks are enticing even when they mean disapproval. There is a peculiar mix of persuasion and coquetry in them. I have always found it impossible to say No to the demands made by Cleo's looks whose meanings I decode quite easily. She has exerted her seductive magic on Maggie too who thinks that Cleo has enormous patience with my personality disorders. 

Denny: scholar with a difference

Some cats are wiser than some philosophers.

Denny is not at all what I thought he was when I named him after Dennis the Menace. As a little kitten he looked a bit of a bully. He has some of that bulliness even now. Sometimes when I serve the food in one plate - instead of two as usual - Denny will draw the plate towards himself with a paw. He is the only one to do that. He is the only male in the group. And he leaves his paw-print in the food-plate.

Denny is a delight, nonetheless. He acts on the simple principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want. If you get it, good; otherwise, leave it. His way of asking is to rub his smooth fur against your calf muscle and then jump up and pull your arm. Denny usually gets what he wants. I pamper him too much, Maggie accuses me. The truth is that none but Denny is capable of so much emotional honesty. 

Dessy chooses her own comforts

Dessy is the opposite of Denny. She detests rubbing and snuggling. She knows when food is available because Maggie and I have rather fixed schedules for our food. She will appear punctually for her food from wherever she is. Usually she is in one of the most comfortable places in the house or outside all by herself. She can't stand patting and petting. Whoever said "All you need is love and a cat" must have had a cat like Dessy. 

Brownie reads the newspaper

Brownie is a charming calico. She loves human touch and snuggles down in my lap with a happy purr every morning when I sit down with newspapers. On rainy nights she will sneak into our bedroom and find the warmest place for herself right on our bed. She is a connoisseur of comfort. Unlike Dessy, Brownie thinks that the best comfort lies in human custody. But she won't let you pet her unless she chooses the occasion herself. You can't catch her, she catches you. 

Nora pondering Deadly Dilemmas

Nora is too young to display individuality. I'll tell you more about her later. Let her grow up into the charm that she promises to be. I don't want her to be like her namesake in Ibsen's classical play. Ibsen's Nora loved with all her heart and soul but ended with a terrible disillusionment. "Our home has been nothing but a playroom," she tells her husband towards the end of the play. "I have been your doll wife, just as at home I was Papa's doll child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them...."

Related post: Cat Lover