Blog 2734 – 04.24.2023

Cats and Dogs, Not Either Or, But Both

Today’s children’s book reading is dedicated to all the fat cats in the world, a few being mentioned by name. My mother was not a cat person nor my dad. My brother and I were only allowed “outside” pets and those mostly dogs with the only exceptions being caged pigeons once until we forgot to feed them and a bunny rabbit that we loved to chase around the backyard when he mysteriously got out of his cage.

I have had but one cat in my life, Midnight. She showed up on our front porch when our son Jonathan was a boy. She was looking for a meal, but came back again and again to his and our delight. One does not own a cat. They own you. Thus it was with Midnight. She came and went as she pleased. She showed up meowing for a meal one day and many days thereafter and then she was gone and we very much missed her presence in our lives. A few years later we gave up hope that she might return and bought a beagle puppy that we named Samatha. She was an inside dog and would tolerate no cats straying into our back yard. She watched them out the patio doors and went wild at every sighting, eager to chase them.

We had Samantha for many years and her passing was a tough time especially for Jon who was grown by then. Several cats still visit our backyard and they are a delight to watch as they stalk all the squirrels, birds, lizards, frogs and the occasional opossums that wander through our child-less and dog-less backyard.

In a few months we are expecting our first granddaughter to arrive. Jay and his wife Lauren have a dog and a cat at their house so baby girl will have something my brother and I never did, a cat and a dog, wall to wall pets. Will her first word be mama or daddy or her first sentence “hello, doggie” or “hello, kitty”? Time will tell. It does not have to be either or but can and should be both.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White, also animal lover and expectant grandpa

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aG6J4mWHFjqZqLrGv6IHcBKybAsUnSyM/view?usp=drivesdk

Catundra