A Cat In The Food House...

 Did a little shuffling in our storage room today. It's also are cat's domain. He rules his kingdom as a curious and sometimes callous leader. No dogs are admitted into his realm--dogs (some dogs...) have proven themselves unworthy. But he allows us humans to enter...

As long as we give his head a little scratch.

There is a room in our cat's space, a room within a room. Behind that door we've stored some supplies, including bottles and bottles of canned pickles due to--for us--a bumper cucumber crop this summer. We don't enter the room within a room often, hence the need for shuffling. Since the door is not opened much, when the cat sees the opportunity, he takes it, usually darting past us to see all the wonders contained therein. 

Is it safe to have a cat in the food house? I have no idea, but he doesn't stay in the room too long. We shew him out after a little while, after the cat has surveyed the human food. 

I think if I were a cat and there was a door behind a door in my kingdom, I'd be curious, too. 

It's A Cat's World...We're All Just Necessary Interruptions

 The other day I walked in on our cat, hanging out in our room and a thought came to me...it's really a cat's world. We're just necessary interruptions in that world.

I grew up with dogs, not cats. My mom didn't like cats, even though we got one and it disappeared shortly after we named it. We believe it migrated to our neighbor's house--she had so many cats, I'm not sure even she knew how many. We were always mad at that neighbor, but as I've grown older, I realize the cat was the one who made the decision to leave. The neighbor just took care of her, which is her being a good neighbor.

But the cat...it was that particular cat's world after all.

A few years ago we answered a classified ad for a kitty that had been abandoned by its mother. We drove south to see if we could help. There were two kittens. When we drove home, there was only one...the other came home with us. It's been an adventure ever sense.

The cat turned into a monster--almost 20 lbs, and he entertains us daily. 

What's amazing about having a pet is that, to them--obviously--it's their world. It's all they know. We, as their caretakers, know the world is much bigger than them. We know that without us they would need to find their own food, their own shelter. Animals have been doing this for as long as there have been animals. And yes, our pets in the wild would survive, at least for a little while. We know it's not entirely their world. But, we also know the world would not be the same without them.