Entertainment, enlightenment (6/30/03)

I tossed the cat into the bathtub the other day. It wasn’t because she had been ripping chunks of wood off the window frame … again; or because she wouldn’t let me brush her long hair; or even because she somersaulted off my knee when she attacked.

I threw her in there so she could play with one of her favorite toys. There was a centipede or some kind of bug with oodles of legs crawling around in the bottom of the tub. Her eyes lit up when she saw the creepy critter. After she finally dispatched the thing, she meowed at me as if to say, “Thanks!” Then she hopped out of the bathtub and checked out the view in her favorite window.

Gracie likes interactive toys. The fact that bugs are edible is an added bonus. She has become a master at catching flies in midair. She will play with them as long as they keep moving. When they become too exhausted to crawl they instantly become snack food.

She can sit for hours watching invisible insects flit about outside. Bunnies and other animals that invade her yard don’t faze her in the least. Birds are only mildly entertaining. Bugs are the things that hold her attention. On the rare occasion that a wasp has gotten in, we have killed it before she could get to it. This causes her to pout for awhile before finding her raggedy snowman to play with as consolation.

After what happened to our previous cat (he ran in front of a car while chasing another feline out of his territory) we don’t allow Gracie to go outside. This is fine with her. She would rather sit in a window and watch the world go by.

She has managed to train us to get her a treat anytime we are in the kitchen. In fact, I think “treat” is the only word she knows.

She wasn’t happy with me when I first took the plants outside for the summer. She had gotten used to batting the foliage around and occasionally dumping the smaller pots for her own amusement. When she realized that the windowsills were perfect for afternoon naps she decided it was all right for the plants to be missing.

I think she believes we are stupid. She is convinced that we can’t find the kitchen or the bathroom unless she leads us there. Plus she makes sure we are agile by weaving in and out of our ankles as we walk. Or maybe she is making us do balancing exercises?

Sometimes I think we really are the stupid ones. We go to work every day and come home mentally exhausted. We provide for her every need. In return she chases flies, rids the bathtub of critters and provides endless entertainment. She prevents us from being slothful by smacking us in the face if we sleep too late even though she, herself, had been known to snooze all afternoon.

I didn’t intend for this entire column to be about the cat. I meant to make the point that bad things happen through no fault of the victim. I was going to say that the bug in the tub didn’t die because it ate the wrong foods or smoked too much. It didn’t believe in the wrong god. It didn’t do anything else it shouldn’t. It became a cat toy because of something out of its control.

Problems are an inevitable part of life. Our only recourse is to live our lives fully and appreciate all that we have been given. If we leave this world a little better because we have been in it then it was all worthwhile; even if our legacy is nothing more than to be temporary entertainment for a calico cat.[[In-content Ad]]