I love all God's Creatures but I must admit to an affinity with some more than others. There is something about the cat that makes me suspect that it sashayed up the boarding ramp onto Noah's Ark before every other living thing because it just knew that it was the king of the beasts. Ignore for a moment that most domestic moggies are distant cousins 700 times removed from the lion; the cat instinctively knows that it is descended from the king of the jungle and that is all there is to say about that.
The 8th of August is International Cats Day so I feel it is worth celebrating our life with cats. And dogs.
I have been the proud servant of many cats over the years and the master of none. My daughter once gave me a small coaster that stated, with great honesty I might add, that dogs have masters and cats have staff and that is it in a nutshell.
But I have observed that my canine family members have been my companions. My cats? I am not sure, as they seem to be more their own boss and I have been privileged to be their companion, not the other way around.
There is always a servant and master mentality, only the dogs have always been grateful to have a kind and generous master, while that cats have hired me to be their companion and that, of course, is something for which I am most grateful.
Much like the days of Inspector Poirot who often featured the Ladies maid or the Ladies companion, I am at the beck and call of my Lady or Master and I do their bidding because it is my duty.
My Mum, Redhead, is both slave and master. She has a very feisty little Jack Russell who we playfully refer to as " Little Sid. " He is a spoilt child, coming up 17 years of age, which in dog years makes him about 119 and is now just a petulant and grumpy old man who throws his weight around and has obviously spent too much time living with cats. But he still knows who is boss. One word from Redhead and " Little Sid " ( not his real name - you might be staggered to know what his real name is ) and he is back to being a good little boy and does what he is told by his mother.
On the other hand, her current resident feline is in charge of the entire house. She sleeps where she wants, when she wants, jumps on the bench to be fed ON DEMAND and peruses the menu before accepting the Chef's Choice for the day. Long gone are the days of the kibbles and a bowl of milk: now, it is Brunswick sardines in a light virgin oil or a tasty tomato sauce to lap up and tease the palate.
Little Sid is not treated badly by his mistress. Every week, Miss Redhead cooks a fine blend of brown rice, chicken, vegetables and minced beef while offering snacks of chicken necks and bones, many of which are taken to the garden to be buried and saved for later.
Her Jack Russell is plagued by only two irritants in his life: THE CAT and THE CROW.
The Cat is a geriatric matriarch who swooshes past him with her tail waving in the air like a flag with a skull and crossbones hoisted upon its end. She invites him to bite it, but he has learned the hard way that it is not a good thing to do. So now he simply turns his back and trots off on his arthritic and worn out legs and looks out the window and ponders times gone by when he would have given that cat hell, by God!
But if a tradie rocks up to do some work for Redhead, Little Sid is out there like a two-year-old, ball in mouth and ready to play with his newfound chum, arthritis seemingly a figment of someone's imagination.
THE CROW is a constant source of frustration to him. There is one that flies onto Redhead's flagpole, situated beside her verandah, and it squawks and taunts poor little Sid until he runs outside to shoo it away.
It will strut on the verandah and peek in through the window. He is faced with THE CAT on the inside and THE CROW on the OUTSIDE; so he looks to his Mistress to sort the invader out.
Not Little Sid. Video for dramatic purposes only. No animals were hurt in the filming of this video,
Alas, she just laughs and takes photographs and emails them off to family members to mock him in his infirmity. He suspects that THE CAT is whispering in her ear and saying " go on, send it. You know you want to. "
Some years ago, my daughter was visiting with her then young son. Little Sid was nipping and being a pain in the backside and Redhead yelled " YOU! OUT! " and before little Sid had a chance to hobble off, the little boy was out the door faster than a politician taking a bribe.
Meanwhile, the cat sat snickering on the mat and started planning her next social media post about reincarnation and how she would never come back as a dog because that would be a downward move.
Dogs are faithful, loving, generous of spirit and incredibly forgiving. They take what they are given and always say please and thank you.
Cats are arrogant, narcissistic and unforgiving. They allow you to serve them and deign to share their life with you if you do as you are told. As I was reminded by a dear friend today, much like men and women.
As someone who has shared my life with both canine and feline, I love them both in equal measures but for different reasons. Cats because of their audacity and dogs because of their humility.
But we as the Noah's of this world, need to love them all as much as each other and protect them all. It is our responsibility.
A dog will fight to protect you. A cat will bugger off to the nearest safe place and seek a new slave. Perhaps because it recognises that there is trouble afoot. A dog will sit faithfully on a grave and wait for his master to come back.
A cat will move on and find a new life.
But, like all animals, they, once domesticated, depend upon us, no matter their instinctive leaning.
Now, this is when we are truly in this together.
Which brings me to the point of this article.
Given that most people have " pets " that are either cat or dog, who is OUR master?
We seem to have governments that are not faithful, not obedient and not grateful for what we give them.
They are certainly narcissistic and self-serving. But, even my cat is smart enough to realise without a slave or staff, she would starve.
So my question is this:
Why is it that we are now ruled by snakes?
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