How does a kitten become a cat?
Lots of ways, and Cats Confidential will present fascinating highlights of the learning process in a new book to be published in the fall.
It’s entitled How To Be A Cat, Conversations with Smokey and Timothy, and will contain selections from what has been, for the past five years, one of the most popular features of our newsletter.
Publication of the new book is scheduled for October, in plenty of time for the Holidays. The expected retail price to be advertised nationally will be $11.95, plus shipping, but subscribers to Cats Confidential can reserve copies at the pre-publication price of $8.95, a 25 per cent discount, plus shipping. Just send the coupon at the bottom of this web page to Cats Confidential, Post Office Box 173, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37401.
A kitten can learn to be a cat in a number of different ways. It learns from its mother. It learns from experience (often the hard way). It learns from its humans. And sometimes, though very, very rarely, it learns from an older cat friend.
Timothy, a solid black kitten, was born in 2001 and was one of four siblings in his mother’s third and final litter. He and all his littermates were rather wild and not too friendly to the humans at the Grey Rocks Cat Sanctuary.
Timothy’s mother, after doing a good job of raising the three kittens in her previous litter, disappeared. And so did Timothy’s three siblings. Coyotes were seen in our area around that time.
And so Timothy was pretty much on his own while he was still a kitten.
But he found a friend. An elderly (probably seven- or eight-year-old) dark gray cat named Smokey, who himself had come to the Sanctuary as a young cat barely out of kittenhood, had put up with the hassles he was subjected to by the older cats and had become one of the most gentle, liked and respected senior felines.
And, remarkably, he formed a real attachment to Timothy, the little black kitten who wanted so badly to be his friend.
This relationship lasted for several years. The two were always together, and we know they were communicating about the subject of how to be a cat. Cats don’t record their conversations but Smokey and Timothy were kind enough to project some of their discussions into the minds of Cats Confidential writers, and we reported them in each issue of our newsletter.
Little Timothy was a hit from the start, and his conversations with Smokey were noted by other writers and have been published in three countries.
We have heard from a number of readers who urged us to compile some of the more popular cat conversations into a booklet. And so we are doing this, and plan to have it published well ahead of Christmas.
Following is an excerpt from the new book, How To Be A Cat, Conversatons with Smokey and Timothy.
Enjoying Life
The morning sun had just risen above the huge hackberry trees guarding the eastern border of the Grey Rocks Cat Sanctuary, and Smokey carefully selected a large area of sunshine that would be there a while -- at least until mid-afternoon, when the sun would drop down over the top of the mountain.
Smokey was a very large cat with long, dark fur that turned reddish in the summer and very light gray in the winter on his back and underside. In both his ears were noticeable nicks that dated back to ancient battles in his younger days as a stray. Now neutered, he lived a comfortable life at the Sanctuary and had become unofficially but unanimously the senior male resident cat. He was loved by all, including not only three of his daughters who also lived there but also six-months-old Timothy, who was no earthly kin but who revered his adopted father figure.
Timothy, who was shorthaired and solid black with large innocent yellow eyes, curled up next to Smokey in the sunshine, and when Smokey rolled on his back with obvious pleasure, Timothy did the same.
Cats communicate in many ways -- some known, like body language involving tails, ears, whiskers and physical positions. But lacking the human ability to communicate verbally, they make up for it with what can only be called mind-to-mind communication. How this works, nobody knows. But it is very clear and specific, and there are rarely any misunderstandings.
Timothy sat up and washed his face with his paws and then settled into a crouch.
“Uncle Smokey, so many times I see our humans looking sad and worried. I know they love us, but why can’t they be happy like we are and enjoy life like we do?”
Smokey yawned. “Beats me, buddy. Seems like humans are just too bogged down with a lot o’ silly unimportant things that they don’t have time to understand what life’s all about. I get the feelin’ they don’t appreciate what they got. Seems like they’re just treadin’ water till it’s over and wearin’ themselves out.”
“Do humans ever chase butterflies, Uncle Smokey? I did that this morning, and it was so much fun. I never caught one, but I just had the greatest time. Then I found a shady spot under an azalea bush and took a nap. That was fun, too.”
“That’s what livin’s all about, boy. Enjoyin’ everything there is to enjoy in the world. Knowin’ what’s important. Like right now it’s important to get up and walk over to see if anybody left a little canned food on top o’ the dry stuff they give us. I sure hope they did, but if they didn’t, no big deal. Nothin’ to worry about.”
He paused and sat up and looked out over the green spring lawn.
“Hey, there’s your sister Melanie out there. Go sneak up and pounce on her. She’ll pop you in the chops and chase you all over the yard, and that ain’t just only fun, it’s good exercise.”
He watched as Timothy crouched, ready to spring out and surprise his sister. And he remembered when he was a kitten. Life was fun then, too.
