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Let me introduce... |
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My feline family...
Is almost a pure-bred daughter of a breeding Siamese mother who escaped from confinement long enough to conceive a wonderful pet... and postpone her earnings by one litter. Shadow was 6 weeks old when she arrived and fit happily in the palm of my hand. Never letting me out of her sight, she quickly became my shadow. She was going on four months before she even ventured down stairs. Until then she used a box in the bathroom and ate in the upstairs hallway and stayed with me in the computer room, in the crook of my arm or by my side in bed. She was inseparable. And she still is. Of my four felines, she is the talkative one. Her vocalizations are typically Siamese and her conversations are lengthy. As I type, she is on my monitor enjoying the heat and remaining within arm’s length. She is completely black but for a white “clerical collar” at the throat.
Is one of two girls my son had in his apartment in Saint John. She is attentive and keeps both me and the other felines constant company. A domestic short-hair, Sophia likes to remind me when I have been negligent in filling the food bowls or emptying the litter boxes. I am surprised how social these four creatures are. They do not like to be apart from each other and they don’t like to be apart from me. As I roam from room to room, they stir from their slumbers and tag along.
Is Sophia’s sister. My son named her Lawrence, reflecting his black humour and giving this petite, long-haired feline a deep psychological complex. Her build is very slender and she floats when she leaps to the mantle piece... so she can survey her domain. She is the Alpha Feline of the pride and does not hesitate to stand her ground. While Sophia keeps me in check, Lawrence keeps her three companions in line. Sounding more like a mouse than a cat, her mews are soft and light.
All three are house cats and do not know the touch of grass on their pads. They bask in the sun, season after season, occupying window ledges in this old house and following the sun from morning till sunset. In the winter they occupy various positions in the boughs of a slender artificial Christmas Tree in the living room. When I was hospitalized over Christmas a few years ago, Shadow actually transformed one artificial tree by laying on the boughs and weighing them down... resembling a balsam fir that had gone through a Maritime ice storm in February! Having systematically knocked all of the ornaments off the boughs, all of my ornaments are now unbreakable.
Back to Monsignor’s Cats | House Rules
Background: ‘The In and Out Song’ by Garrison Keillor in Songs of the Cat |
Shadow...
Sophia...
Lawrence...
Monsignor