In Search of a Wisewoman
Why Old Ladies Live with Cats
One might wonder how it came to be that there is a connection of old ladies living with cats. I have lived a long and not necessarily well-lived life as previously stated. I have had rural roots that are deep and foundational which have influenced my entire philosophy.
In my younger years I might have considered myself “A dog person.” The list of wonderful canines is embedded in my memory, good dogs all, with distinct characteristics and personalities. The first cat that came into my life was accidental and due more to my inability to be immune to a sob story. This feline had walked boldly into a stranger’s home in subzero and I’m talking Celsius, not Fahrenhiet, temperatures, beside the resident cat just before Christmas. The homeowners did not want another cat as they were happy to see their old girl out, but were not take on a youth. They pitched taking the cat versus having it destroyed.
I yielded to pressure.
The cat was a part Maine Coon, the gentle giants of the cat world, highly intelligent, more dog-like than cat, a brown tabby with wonderful natures. My then toddler daughter dubbed him “Siegfried” as apparently she had been sneaking out of bed to watch “All Creatures Great & Small” and was even at that age, showing a profound affinity for all creatures herself. Siegfried was to ruin me for any other common-all -garden cats. He was more loyal than my first husband and now having “Sequel,” the current occupant in situ, he is the companion of my old age now that Numero Duo saw fit to transition back to the stars. I speak of Himself, my second husband.
Old ladies live with cats because they are not unlike having a man in the house….. short periods of demanding attention and long periods of being ignored. A man requires training and that comment will rankle any male reader and make any female of an age, nod and smile. A cat refuses training except in reverse and believe me, they are adept at training the chosen possessor of opposing digits. A cat is willing to allow a certain degree of patience for the staff to improve each day on what pleases said feline and in exchange the cat will, with timing any bard would envy, offer a brief and exquisite performance of affection or amusement. Old ladies get this. They too have grown a shorter tolerance for catering to whims, hence old ladies and cats rub along, no pun intended, quite well together.