Animal-Love

My sister Stephanie has had a recent love affair but it's not with a human. It's with...Toonces...who is a cat (as my sister named her, after the SNL skit which I had to Google, you may have to as well, it was from a really bad SNL period, in my opinion, when not much was funny but apparently this was). But not just ANY cat, mind you. This stray cat in her neighborhood that climbed into her life and captured her mind & heart has become something else. And then, heart-breakingly, this stray cat had kittens....and they are so SOFT (as she tells me) it's unbelievable! Almost criminal. This animal-starved sister of mine and her recent erotic cheating-with-the-cats night when boyfriend was out of town (cuz he can't stand them), compelled me to write this post about what I think about loving animals. Maybe it's only cuz I don't have children of my own, and all that nurturing energy has to go SOMEWHERE but I have this animal love/yearning also. The dogs in our apartment complex we see out being walked, with their "know-all, tell-nothing eyes" as my husband once put it, draw me to them. We stop and pet, adore & coo, but we don't have them (or their poop to pick up) and come away a little bit empty, always. Even when it's a relief to think we don't have that work to do. It's still an ache (the memory of the cats I had, and gave up when we moved to Florida), and the love for animals is powerful. It's a love that has nothing to do with sex or romance or babies or family or whatever else you might want to turn it into. But whatever it is, it is very personal. Recently I talked to David about making a trip to the local Humane Society, just to hang out with some cats (but we didn't go, maybe next weekend). And lately when I've passed by a place in a slightly bad neighborhood, not far from my work, called the "Cat Depot" - I've just been filled with such cat-longing & rescue-fantasies....that's how animal-starved I've been. Maybe we could do some kind of cat-foster thing, like I remember one friend did, no commitment but we could help out and I could get that need fed?! No matter how perfect a husband I have (which he's not, of course) it's like still needing a good therapist, despite how great he is and how he listens when I talk-talk-talk - he still can't fill ALL my needs! :) And so, I offer this story - written by my sister years ago, isn't it adorable?! Tiger My family used to have a very handsome cat named Tiger. Not only was he handsome but friendly as well. People would come by our house and stop to pet Tiger and he wouldn't scratch or run away but let them stroke his black and white striped back. One summer day when Tiger was in his usual place, nestled down in the grass under a chair relaxing, my Dad came home from work to find a surprising note on the door. The note read these exact words: "We have been looking for a mate for our luscious seductive pussy cat. We followed a striped, extra-toed hunk to your porch. If he (if it is a He, we can't tell) would be interested please phone us as soon as possible! Thank you, Mary" It was not the kind of note we got every day, and my Dad was surprised. He showed the note to the rest of us when we came home from the beach. We all thought it was very funny. The only problem was Tiger was neutered and couldn't get other cats pregnant. Even so, we tried calling the woman to let her know but we couldn't get a hold of her so we never contacted her. But from then on Tiger was known as The Hunk.