Cats & Community

How a threesome of felines created a purrfect state of loving kindness in my home.

I had been several years in my catless household when my daughter, along with some help from my sister, pulled a cat intervention on me. “Mom, you love cats. You live alone. You would enjoy the company.”

“Oh no,” I said. “I love cats but I don’t have time to care for them.”

“Well, the animal shelter is open today. We could go look.”

First mistake. When you love cats, there’s no such thing as just looking. I have to walk quickly by the cats in cages at PetSmart because I cannot stand to see them locked up. I rarely even shop there anymore.

Of course, I gave in. If it would keep her from nagging, I’d ride over there. Waiting at the door for us was this beautiful, sweet, adorable male tuxedo kitten. “I think a male cat needs a litter mate buddy,” I said.

“Oh, he has a male litter mate,” my daughter said. “See, he’s tapping on the window. He wants to see you!” Sure enough, this gorgeous black and white cat, who looked like he knew what he was about, tapped on the window to get my attention. He was so polite. He purred. He rubbed up against my leg. What a nice little cat.  

In the meantime, a smaller black-and-white cat was climbing up our legs, chewing on us, making himself mildly obnoxious, and almost shouting at us, “Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!” I knew I had to get out of there fast!

“Well, which one do you want?”

“All three of them! Let’s go before I see another one I can’t leave behind!”

That’s the story of how I became a cat mom again to Beau (the tuxedo), Bennie (the litter mate), and Baby Cat (the obnoxious, loving one). They have grown and changed in the past 15 months. Beau climbs screens like lightning. He jumps from the valance over the bedroom window onto the bed beside me.

Bennie can dismantle vinyl window blinds with the speed of a ninja. He climbs the wooden ones just as fast. I may not respond to him quickly enough when he comes over to give me instructions. His favorite trick is to jump on the chandelier over my desk and hang from it. THAT gets a reaction quickly. Or he will smack the cord to the ceiling fan in the bedroom until it flips up and dings the light fixture. THAT gets my attention. He plays trampoline on my body if I sleep for a few extra minutes. He’s only 15 pounds now…Besides that, he is our chief inspector and protects us from spots on the floor, dust curls, and anything moving. He likes to analyze how everything works. He sniffs it down and pats it until he is satisfied. Like the ice maker. And the cell phone. And my laptop. He studies what I do. He may have been the one who made the last Amazon order for cat treats.

Beau and Bennie are loving, sweet-natured cats. Baby Cat is still learning. He is very loving but on his own terms. He loves his siblings and plays well with them until he decides to bite their ears. He has recently compromised with me and graciously allows me to sleep in my own bed without fuss—as long as I do not try to move him from his spot. He’s even changed spots to move closer to me lately. Again, He likes to touch on his own terms and is very picky. He doesn’t like Beau snuggling on my other side, though. We’re still working on that. Not nice to jump over Mom and kick Beau out of bed. Not that Beau lets that affect him. He’s back in minutes. Beau just climbs in another way. No harm. No foul.

So, the house may never have every room clean at the same time again. Many of my papers have chew marks on them. The heavy books that hold the dust cover on the piano are no match for my boys. Those books look better on the floor, anyway. The dining room chairs are just fine without a liner under the seats. And there’s nothing that warms my heart like waking up in the middle of the night, surrounded by my three precious boys who love me and each other most of the time! You can feel the love, especially when they snuggle with each other.

Through the years, each of my cats has had a different personality and has brought something special into my life. Snowball liked to go for walks with us. She enjoyed just being with us. Midnight would greet guests at the door and follow them around, then escort them back to the door. He was our security officer. Eddie seemed to sense when someone wasn’t well. He would lie on them and purr as if to raise the vibration and heal them. All 20 pounds of him! The little guys in my life now bring joy, mischief, and laughter into the house. They are all sweet-natured, and their care for each other is obvious.

Baby Cat did not have a secure first few months of his life. He is still learning to trust. He defends first and snuggles second, but he is learning, at least a little. The other two will run to him if he starts mewing. It is beautiful to see the kindness. They groom him. He is family.

This is the natural way. This is love. This is what we can learn from our precious pets.