As I follow the cat's gaze I discover that not only are robins making their hop-and-stop inspection of the grassy strip between road and sidewalk, but there are starlings sauntering around also. A set of yellowish birds darted together nearly into the artist's open porch and then zoomed up and away. A few doves are poking randomly under the unruly bushes and about ten small, tense birds have stopped for a moment on the tall TV antenna. A robin is bobbing confidently down the middle of the street. A car comes by and, just in time, he and all the others fly off-- way off-- into the trees and sky, and a squirrel that was grazing among them hops off into the woods.
The cat's ears go back and his body relaxes. He arranges himself on my filing cabinet and lets his eyes close, then slit, then close.
Our cat has at least four days for each of our 24-hour spans. In each of his days he spends some time checking territory, a bit of time eating dry food and drinking water, watching prey, washing himself, playing games like chasing bare feet and jumping out from unexpected places, and a lot of time sleeping. We watch the phenomenon of "half sleeping" where one side of the cat's brain stays awake as a sentry. We can speak his name nearly soundlessly from ten feet away and one ear will swivel and one eye will open from an apparently zonked out cat and look straight at us. Then it closes and nothing has changed.
Even if we and cats shared a common language we would probably not understand them. They would not tell: inscrutability seems to be one of their survival tools.
It's no wonder that domestic cats have persisted in man's world for eons! Likely Cleo's cat did her days in the palace checking territory, lapping up the food supplied, chuttering at small moving things with an eye for the chase, grooming herself, chasing feet, and sleeping. I am certain she charmingly rubbed her cheek across the pillars looking oh so grateful. She may have professed in her cattish way to "love" her humans, but cats will act however they must to get what they want. And outside the palace walls there were more like her, doing very much the same thing.
The Taj -- Much Admired and Remembered
You have to admire cats. I have always thought I loved cats, but I am not sure whether you can love a cat. They have a different set of rules, and they don't tell you what they are. Cats will probably be around for another several thousand years doing their stylish stuff-- probably they will outlive the race of man. When the world is finished doing its history there may well be a cat watching .Then he will curl up for a nap.
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