Three's Company: Just Me and the Cats
So, welcome back friends. It has been quite a
week here. Aside from the normal busy way of things, there was a surprise sick
kitty that ended up on this week's docket. Patriot, I noticed, didn't
seem to be himself and was exhibiting behaviors and symptoms that he really
wasn't feeling well. Fortunately, it is not anything too serious.
The vet has ruled out any major illnesses and advised that it just appears to
be a bug. So, we are just treating symptoms over the next week and a
half.
I still feel so bad for the poor boy. He's
normally a cat with peculiar ways of showing his affection and usually isn’t
what you might call, "clingy." However, over the past two days,
he just wants to be really close to me. I have laid out a pillow on my
drafting table next to my computer desk and he has been sleeping on that for
hours while I work. It hurts my heart to know he isn't feeling well but
hopefully after a few days of meds, he will start to feel better. In the
meantime, I am happy to let him curl up as close as he wants to or needs
to. We all can relate. We never want to be alone when we aren't feeling
well.
We all go a little overboard when it comes to our pets
feeling sick. Understandable. We love them. Though, I hate the word
"pet" for lack of a better word. (Someone should really coin a new
and better word for this relationship.) These animals we cohabitate with
are really more like family. I know that some people think of them as
babies, fur-babies, children (as for many of those people it's as close to
children as they might or want to get.) I hear "cat-dad,"
"cat-mom," "dog-dad," "dog-mom" used a lot. They
do feel like our family, and in many ways, they are. For me, these terms
still just don't fit/hit how I feel about my relationship to these two cats I
live with. I prefer to use the word "Steward" or
"Companion."
I'm not a religious man, though I grew up going to
church and there was a part in the Bible where God gives Adam and Eve
"dominion" over all the animals He/She created.
"Dominion" is a terrible word. The sentiment was meant to be
that we are meant to be their "Stewards" and care for them in the
ways that they can't care for themselves and to protect them. At least
that is what I took from it when I learned that in Sunday school. Our
purpose is to guard, protect and care for these beautiful animals. Not to
"dominate," "own," or "possess" them. They
aren't extensions of us. They have their own lives they are living.
We are their stewards, and we should be good ones.
I think of Peanut Butter and Patriot as my companions,
roommates that are like family. We have conversations in each of our own
languages (yet we somehow understand each other), we cuddle, we do lunch, we
take walks (inside the apartment. They DO NOT like going outdoors. lol)
We cohabitate. Humans have been cohabitating and forming bonded
relationships with cats for centuries.
The unique
relationship between humans and cats can be traced as far back as 10,000 to
12,000 years ago. The origin of this link was made possible by one of the
earliest developments in human civilization: agriculture. When humans
began producing food, it made "settling down" a possible reality and
humans eventually gave up their nomadic survival way of life. As humans
farmed land and began to store grain, it began to attract rodents. The
middle eastern wildcats took advantage of this new abundant food source and
began to "settle down" near these early towns, hunting rodents and
scavenging for garbage.
Many of us think that our link to cats began with the
ancient Egyptians, 4000 years ago. The Egyptians believed that cats were
magical, divine and godlike. Cats were worshiped, the female goddess Bastet was
depicted as half feline and half human woman. On many ancient Egyptian
artifacts, cats are a symbolic fixture, illustrating their value, popularity
and companionship with humans. And while this is a very significant link,
it is not the origin of our endearing relationship with cats.
Researchers have recently discovered that in the
Mesopotamia region of Turkey, and on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, cats
were living with people thousands of years before they existed in Egypt.
The new evidence suggests that people domesticated cats in the Middle East more
than 10,000 years ago. Additionally, the first evidence of the “blotched” or
“tabby“ coat pattern cat, which commonly appears in domesticated cats, appeared
in Turkey during the 14th century. (Hi, Patriot! lol)
Spooky Season was not too long ago and that has me
thinking about one Human Cat bond in particular that fascinated me in stories
in folklore. I am speaking of the bond of a witch to their familiar
(which was often represented as a cat.)I am not going to go off onto a tangent
about the history of The Familiar, even though it is a fascinating history. You
may click the image above to read more about it, if you like.
How I Met My Cats:
Each of the cats showed up in my life in unique and
such different ways. When Peanut Butter made her appearance, I was living in
downtown small-town Americus, GA. I had another senior cat at the time, Rum
Tum. I had always wanted to get her a kitty companion, but the time just never
seemed right.
One evening, after my boyfriend at the time was
visiting, he found a little stray kitten under his parked truck outside my
place. The little kitten was very weary of people and tried to run off.
However, they ran headfirst into ground to ceiling glass from a shop display
window from one of the shops that were on street level below my
apartment.
Poor thing was stunned and disoriented. My boyfriend
cornered the kitten and called me to come down and see them. I did and
instantly fell in love with the little thing. When I first saw her, she
reminded me of what happens to a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup if you leave it in
your pants pocket. It gets all squished up and melts. And that's exactly what
she looked like. So, baby Peanut Butter had her name instantly.
Peanut Butter had a bad infected gash in one of her
front legs. I expect this is from other strays attacking her over food or
shelter. I think she was a kitten born from the stray cat colony that lived
around the dumpsters behind the Seafood restaurant that was next to my apartment
building. But for whatever reason she either got lost or was banished. In any
case, girl ended up living in a New York City apartment warm and cozy.
After a trip to the vet and some antibiotics, her leg
healed up well. Peanut Butter began to trust us and exhibit her very bright and
sunny personality. She loved to eat, and play. She still does now, along
with some other peculiar behaviors unique to her.
Peanut Butter is a lap kitty and loves to nap on my
chest/stomach. She loves treats and is sort of an acrobat when it comes to the
zoomies. She can climb to the top of the cat tree (that's floor to ceiling,
mind you) in a split second. She is a suckered for catnip anything and likes a
little dollop of Greek yogurt in the morning. She's super sweet and
affectionate. She loves to be held like a baby and curls up next to me every
night when it's time for sleep. She also has a variety of panic rooms that she
visits if anyone visits me. I love her so much.
Patriot came to me by an old high-school friend.
My friend runs an animal rescue shelter outside of Atlanta... but I'm getting
ahead of the story some.
RumTum had passed and Peanut Butter was 2 years old
and had become restless. She was having a hard to coping with the loss also.
She really was not doing well being left home alone when I was at work because
she had never previously had to be alone. My neighbors were even telling me,
“Dude, you need to get Peanut Butter a new companion." But I
resisted as I knew I wasn't ready to get another cat just yet. A little time
had passed, and Peanut Butter just became worse with her anxiety. I began to
open to the idea of finding her a new companion.
My friend one day posted a photo of Baby Patriot (then
known as Freedom) and I melted. He reminded me of RumTum a little and was just
the most adorable kitten I've seen. I reached out to my friend. It turned
out that he and his siblings had been abandoned on the doorstep of the shelter
on the Fourth of July (hence the patriotic themed name) I put in an application
for Freedom and I was accepted. I decided to keep the theme of the name and
call him Patriot. It was a P-name like Peanut Butter and I had already come up
with little nicknames for him.
Patriot and Peanut Butter were fast friends, and they
took to each other quickly. I'm glad they got along so well.
Patriot is probably the most unusual cat I've ever
been around. He's also petite but VERY long in body shape. He is a grey tabby
with cute kittle spots on his tummy. I sometimes call him my "Little Grey
Tiger." He really does resemble a tiger.
He is quite affectionate but is rather odd about how
and where he expresses his affection. Yes, you read that correctly... where.
His love and attention is geolocation specific.
He likes to receive his love and pets on the bathroom
sink or on the drafting table as I'm walking into the apartment (if I've been
out.) He DOES NOT like to be held, like a baby or held otherwise. What he does
like to do is jump up and lay across my shoulders (as in the illustration) I
take him for rides across the apartment until he decides he wants to go
down.
He likes to lick the water off my head right out if
the shower. Patriot is indifferent to catnip but lives to chase string and
Lazer pointers. He can take or leave treats unless it's one of those lick-able
pouch sticks that remind me of gogurts. He loves those. He likes to knock
things off surfaces that he personally feels don't belong there. He likes to
try and eat plastic 🙄🙄🙄. That's a battle to
keep him from doing that.
He likes to jump in the laundry hamper when it's
empty. He also climbs on me every morning to greet/wake me and then insists I
escort him to his full food bowl in the kitchen. He also likes to drink
from the sink (they both do) EVERYTIME I'm in the bathroom. He'll put his paw
under the stream of water then he'll lock his paw... so formal. He's my weird
but sweet little but big kitty. I love that little mischievous rascal.
Let's talk about the art a little bit.
I have been wanting to make an illustration of me with
the cats for a while, but just never really ended up getting to it. Other
projects somehow ended up taking precedence over it. I randomly, one
evening recently, just had the urge and knocked out a sketch of both of them
with me. They are illustrated how they normally prefer to lounge on
me. Peanut Butter is a very traditional yet very aggressive lap
cat. It's almost as if she is just waiting for me to sit down all the
time so she can curl up in my lap, which is sweet. She’s such a very
traditionally affectionate cat. Patriot on the other hand is more unusual
in how he expresses his affection. Aside from preferring to groom my head when
I exit a shower or preferring his pets on top of the sink or the radiator, he
enjoys jumping onto my shoulders. I've never had a cat do that before,
but it's his jam. He loves to be carried around perched like a parrot or
wrapped around my shoulders like a scarf.
There's not much to say about the illustration
itself. Technically, it's like my other work and if you've been following
the blog, my process is outlined in detail in many of those previous
posts. That is why I do not tend to share it anymore unless there was
some strange occurrence or unusual process that I underwent in the art's
creation.
It's just a simple illustrated image of me with the
cats in my illustration style, but when I look at it I feel my bond and think
about the unique relationship I have with each one of them. That is why
it was so important for me to share that with you above. The image alone
can appear pretty plain, but it contains multitudes for me. I'm sure you
all have that photo of you with your companion that just looks like a cute
picture to the rest of the world but speaks to a rich history and emotional
story that’s volumes in length.
I hope this post inspires you to do something special
with that furry special one in your life this upcoming weekend. I'd love
to hear from you all. Please share with me a story of you and your
companion. How did you meet? What sort of things do you do
together? What was your last great conversation together about? Share it
with me. I'd love to hear it.
Until next time, friends,
Keep sketching, keep thinking, keep
laughing, and most important of all,
keep making art.
Cheers,
LEWIS
***history of cats and humans pulled from the following sources:
The History of the Domestic Cat
The Brief History and Journey of the
Domestic Cat
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