Cats Learned Me Much

My Dad was not just a clever man but he was good with his hands and positively inclined in many areas of household repair and refurbishing.

In 1950, my parents moved from Atlanta, GA to Virginia and purchased a home 4 miles outside of Alexandria which was 4 miles outside of the Nation's Capital. 

The residential suburbs were newly constructed and we with the 3rd family to purchase a home; our house was on a corner lot so we had a little more acreage than the other lots and I think my parents said that they paid $18,500 and I don't recall if they said that was ever a good or a bad deal. 

 I would suspect that it was a good deal because in about 2005 that same house sold for 2.5 million dollars.

As I mentioned, my Dad was a handyman and in one square room, he built beds that covered the sides of 2 walls heading in the same direction towards the corner but where they met was an opening of about a 3 foot square. So, my Dad turned that into a storage area with a top with hinges so we could lift it up and down and when it was down, it served as a table top.

Instead of putting springs under the mattress, he simply laid down on 1X2s nailed in, all around the inside perimeter, an 8X12 piece of plywood. Then, underneath each bed was an empty space so he put 2 doors with hinges on the outside of each bed, so we could use under the bed as storage as well.

The third wall was our shared closet and the fourth wall was our shared desk and bookshelves, so it was very convenient. However, my sister had her own room and I did not have to share my room until my brother was born 8 years later.

Somewhere along the line, I vaguely remember (after my brother was born) my Dad or Mom bringing home a cat that we all played with and after a few days it disappear and we thought it ha d run away, but was found a few months later, under one of our beds, smelling and dead.

Shortly thereafter, we got a dog that I refer to as a hotdog dog or a Dachshund that was either a medium or a large with reddish brown hair and big huge brown eyes that made my Dad cry for the first time that we knew about 20 years later, when he had to be put asleep. His name was Rebel.

And no, he was not named after me but I was named after him.

Later my sister got a female Dachshund name Libby because she was acquired on the 4^th of July and mated Libby with Rebel to sell pups but I wanted the black runt of the liter which she gave to me and I named him Studd with 2 “d's” and let me tell you something... Studd was a lady picker-upper when I went to college. Studd was killed on our driveway by my Mom one day during the summer when she was backing the car out of the driveway and did not see him.

I wanted nothing more to do with pets and did not have anything to do with pets until my second marriage about 25-30 years later, when we decided to take care of a couple of stray cats (a mother and her son) when we were living in Chattanooga.

Cats, once neutered or spade, are the easiest animals to take care of, especially there is no “house breaking” process required. All one has to do is setup a litter box and these little jewels go straight to it with no questions asked and have no to ever ask you for directions to ever find it or their food.

Dog, on the other hand, are high maintenance for a while until you teach them to go outside to do their business. And, I can remember Rebel just sitting at the door, waiting or whining a little when someone was there and all you had to do was open the door, and he would scamper out and when he was ready to come in, he would return to that same door and scratch on it to get your attention.

Our first two cats were outdoor cats and we (which was me) cut out a cat door in the garage door and these cats would simple come and go as they wanted. The cat door was squared away with a magnet which hung around their necks on a collar so that they were the only cats that could use the door.

You can purchase cat litter that has an odor guard incorporated but we also pour in baking soda to absorb the smell and have never had a problem; although, for me, I lost my sense of smell and taste when I quit smoking 27 years ago anyway so that never really bothered me.

The one issue that I really like with cats is that if they do not like you for any reason then they will leave you alone which was fine with me at the beginning. However, if their food bowl is empty they come to your location and whether they like you or not, they will rub their bodies all up against you as if they were in heat which of course they cannot be because they were neutered or spade so it must be food they want which for someone like me, even I can figure that out.

Our mother cat lived for 18 years and died of old age after becoming deaf and blind and got wet one afternoon because she did not see or hear the rain and got disoriented trying to get back in, so she got sick and that did her in so we (my wife not me) had to have her put down; and, her son which was bold as brass and would let you swing her around sitting inside a bucket with a handle... well, he must have had a bad heart because one night when my wife and he were playing (10 years earlier), he simply jumped in the air and came back down to the ground dead.

It was really hard on her... both cats, but him more than her. I dug holes in the back yard in a little garden area that they both like to relax in and made sure that they were buried side-by-side.

We had no cats for a few years and then 4 years ago, we wanted to get two more but ended up with three: 2 yellow and 1 Siamese, all males, all neutered.

What has really been amazing for me is that these cats, believe it or not, have taught me many things about myself which dogs never did. You have to treat a dog pretty damn mean for him/her to be afraid of you; but, for cats, they can sense your feelings and seem to really understand you tone as well as your body language.

All 3 of these cats have no problems with me and it is totally because I HAVE CHANGED, not them and while that may seem a tad silly to you, the reader, it has actually made me a better person in how I treats others in general, and when I mean others, I am talking about RUDE adults that seem to congregate in Malls and grocery stores these days as well as in cars on the Interstates.

With that said, I still refuse to say, “well bless her little heart.”