Friday, October 24, 2008

gifts

My cat (at least I hope it was my cat) left me this gift on the door mat this morning. I did not feel the need to try to revive it. I learned that not only is my dustpan a good for scooping it was a surprisingly effective way to launch a critter to his final resting place. 

Sometimes I feel like I'm too callus in my attitude about some of God's creatures. I know that all animals have their place in this world. I also grew up with the Catholic belief that animals don't have souls. That said, I treat all animals humanly - except for the ones I feel the need to step on or squash or call a professional to remove...or um, eat. 

I think my cat, Felix lives the life of Riley. He gets to eat and sleep indoors if he so desires. He also gets to play outdoors and be the king of the backyard and enjoys the attention of several neighbors. He was rescued from the streets and has had all of the proper shots and snipping. 

I have friends who don't think I should let him outside, that he won't live as long. I think it's a quality of life issue - for him and me. He needs tree climbing time and I need time to do stuff without tripping over a cat. 

I think the scale of cat people goes like this (from bottom to top)
Nora 
the rest of the world
Click on their names for cat posts. 

8 comments:

Ralph said...

Your cat was bringing you a gift to show his appreciation for all you do for him. You are not to callas about God's creatures but you should learn to become more gracious about accepting gifts.
Ralph

Cliff said...

Yeah, what Ralph said.
Plus, how do you know that ground squirrel didn't always have a personal dream of someday being able to fly? What you did for him brought tears to my eyes.

Cliff said...

Man, I just read everything I'd missed. Clear back to your 'Harvest' post.
The twins blog was tiring. Wow you must have crashed. Nice of you to help.
Cooperating with work crews ALWAYS pays dividends. I'm amazed that someone wouldn't.
Good writing.
I wish I lived in Indy, I'd head to the Red Key tonight.

Rachel said...

Ha! I see Cliff and I are at opposite ends of the list there!! Yeah, I love my kitty cats!

I have been catching up on your posts. The CPR phone book memory was exciting!! You did great! I probably wouldn't have worried about the exchanging fluid thing in that situation! Once when I worked in the hospital a young cancer patient coded and the nurse that did the mouth to mouth told me that the patient threw up in her mouth. TMI! She had gone in and found her and called for help and then just started giving her CPR immediately. Unfortunately the girl died. But that would have grossed me out I think. I would still be gargling!!

Kirsten said...

I am confident that the only thing keeping me from that list is that I do not blog about my cats. If I did, that is probably all I would blog about. And I'm sure that Claire "Pretty Pea" McGillicutty, Mr. Milosz "Budgie" Jones, and one Jemaine Clementine "Tiny" Shine would agree. Also, Ben would agree, but it would be with a smirk and a shake of the head (though he is just as bad!).

Granny Annie said...

Thank you for including me as a cat person. I'm also a dog and chicken person. All of our cats are outdoor critters and actually we are living in their territory.

Nora, where do I ship my son? Or, should you guys meet before the wedding?

Yes, my computer seems to be fixed and I'm going to try to catch up on my reading. Huzzah!

Jerry in Texas said...

Cliff, what end of the cat scale are we at? Would that be blatant indifference? You're having more success than me. First of all, you're at the top of this list. Second of all, I'm down to one cat now. They've all wandered off or gotten eaten...just disappeared. When the last one's gone, I'm off the cat list. I'll just sign a treaty with the mice and we'll split the property evenly.

Cliff said...

Yeah, Jerry, I just realized that Nora really slammed us. Me.
Well, maybe she should see the 4 cats I trip over every time I exit the house.
I don't believe in coddling a cat. We have a management/worker arrangement. I don't believe in redistributing the mice. They're on their own here. I will feed them a stipend however.