Maggie in the windowsill
My parents, for years, had two pets, a dog and a cat. For our first six year in Kentucky, Traveler (our collie) was a single child. He mourned the loss of our cat deeply. He moped around and every Himalayan cat he saw, he thought would want to play with him, cause it must be Rumbler. (We had left her in Alaska because we'd been long term petsitting, we'd never "owned" her.") Then in 2004, dad's co-worker decided that my parents needed a cat and Maggie (Margaret Thatcher) came into their lives. Traveler loved Maggie and it was common to see Maggie sleeping on top of Traveler or Traveler helping Maggie groom the hair on the top of her head.
So, perhaps it wasn't surprising when Maggie took Traveler's death incredibly hard. She knew it was coming (as we all did). He stayed outside for the 48 hours before he died and she apparently refused to leave his side, even for food and water. When I say he stayed outside, that was primarily because he couldn't walk up stairs or control bodily functions, and by that point he wasn't eating. It wasn't very cold and they'd made the shed up for him. But Maggie stayed with him. Mom brought him inside (carrying him) before she took him to the vet, and I don't know if Maggie came in too, but when mom came home from the vet, Travy wasn't there, and my parents say that Maggie hasn't been the same since. She's been much more needy and has craved attention.
Ben is not a cat person. I think of him as a dog person, but neither of us has pets at the moment. So I didn't know what his reaction to spending a week with a cat would be. Maggie has latched onto him though. Dad thinks it's because he's the calmest presence in the room, but if Ben is seated, Maggie will find lap space and sit there for as long as possible. It doesn't matter if he's reading, doing sudoku, or on a laptop, she will be there. I, naturally, have been teasing him about this and he now claims that we can't get a cat because the cat would like him better and then I would feel neglected and would get another cat, leading to a vicious cycle. For now though, I'll just enjoy having a cat wandering around and I'll enjoy the notion that maybe, one time, the cat will pick me...
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2 comments:
I'm thinking about giving your family a cat called Tony Blair just for tradition's sake. Or actually, John Major is better, because then you could call it "Major" for short, and no one would suspect the prime minister connection -- though I see no reason why you'd want to deny it. One thing's for sure, I would never name a cat Gordon Brown. Boooooring.
I told my parents this about five times. They need to get a dog, but I don't think it will happen any time soon. But they should definitely call it after a prime minister or monarch. PLUS there is the connection that mom is Canadian and is, therefore, part of the Commonwealth, thus tying her to the REAL Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair. I kindof like the idea of a cat named Queen Victoria. Or Bloody Mary. I imagine Bloody Mary being a good mouser.
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