I never grew up with cats. I was a dog lover. I had numerous dogs when I was growing up, but cats never struck me as a pet I wish I had. Like most boys I was fascinated with all things crawling - turtles, frogs, toads, lizards, etc. In fact, I even had a pet frog for about 10 minutes until I dropped a brick on him while I was “building” a home for him in the backyard. Poor frog never had a chance with me as his owner!
Another reason why cats didn’t do much for me was my allergies to them - BIG time allergies! I would sneeze, my eyes would water, and my throat would swell up….not a pretty sight! I took allergy medicine when I was younger, but not to combat cats. Cats just weren’t my thing.
Fast forward 40 years…I am now the proud owner of four, very different but unique cats. So what happened? Did I all of a sudden become a cat fan, or did my allergies mysteriously disappear?? On the contrary, I married into them! My wife has always loved cats. She grew up with them and couldn’t imagine living without them. She had two when we got married. Since then we’ve brought two more into our home. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still very much a dog guy…but cats have become a part of my pet owner mantra late in life.
Let me tell you about each of these obsessive, but loveable creatures of ours. The first one is named Squirrel. Squirrel is the only male, and struts around like he owns the place. He has little to do with the other three cats. He’s bigger, and he’s the only outdoor cat we allow to come and go as he pleases. He always comes back - a bit beat up at times, but lays he head at our home each day and night. Squirrel has a drooling problem as well. He’ll come up to you, stick out one of his front paws like he wants to shake your hand, then proceeds to drool all over as you pet him.
Cat number two is Skyla. We adopted Skyla a few years ago for our daughter. Skyla is very skittish and doesn’t tolerate people, but for some reason has recently adopted my wife and me. It probably has something to do with the fact that our daughter was adopted by a Puggle we brought home a couple of years ago, but that’s another blog for another day. The stories I could tell you about that dog…….but I regress, this is about our cats. Back to Skyla - she refuses to drink water from any other place than my bathroom sink. Not my wife’s mind you, but mine! She follows us into the bathroom, jumps up on the counter, and then expects us to turn the faucet on for her. It doesn’t stop there either; Skyla wants to be petted, but only in our walk-in closet. If you try and pet her anywhere else in the house besides the closet she runs away and looks at you as if to say, “What the heck are you thinking??”
Molly is our third cat. My daughter and I adopted her for my wife a couple of years back to replace a cat she lost awhile back. Molly’s name at the humane society was Lasagna, but who wants to be named that?? We changed it to Molly and it sticks with her. Molly is fairly independent, but does love sitting in a lap. She likes to be around where the action is, and if she had it her way she’d be hanging outside with Squirrel all day. She sits at the back door and stares at what her life would be like outside the house. Poor girl!
Kevyn is cat numero four. How Kevyn got her name is somewhat unique. When my wife brought her home about a year ago she immediately named “him” Kevin. We all thought it was a cute name, so it stuck. A few weeks later I took “Kevin” to the vet for “his” first checkup and shots. It’s there that we discovered that “Kevin” was a “her.” The vet said, “So what are you going to call her now?” I said, “That’s easy, it’s now Kevyn with a Y!” Everyone got a good laugh out of that, so it’s been Kevyn with a Y ever since. Kevyn is most certainly a lap cat. She will seek a lap of anyone sitting down. She seems to be especially fond of my lap, for some reason, but she walks around the house just waiting for someone to sit down so she can take her rightful place in the lap. Of course, when she’s not in a lap petting is completely off limits. Like Skyla, you can only pet Kevyn on her terms!
So, about the cat lap…it belongs to me. Being that I was never been a fan of cats or had a reason to own one, I now find that each of the four seem to prefer me over the others in the household. At various times throughout the evening one or two of them will seek me out and promptly make themselves at home in my lap. It doesn’t matter to them if I’m on the computer, reading a book or playing a video game, my lap is where they end up.
They say that dog owners don’t pick their dogs, dog pick their owners. I’m beginning to believe that’s certainly the case with cats as well… J
A Common Man
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