2-26-2006 I Am Cat - Hear Me Purr

(Dedicated to Miss Pris (pictured above),Tribble, Reebok, Mouse, Tiger, Dexter, Noodles, Fluffy, Wednesday, Luna, TOO (The Other One), Oreo, Arizona, Kachina, and all the other wise and wonderful felines I have known and loved!) When it comes to mindfulness, cats have it all figured out. Cats are the absolute masters of the art of being in the moment. They sleep. They eat. They ask for things they want with no hidden agenda. “Meow. Feed me. Meow. Stroke me, pet me, adore me. Meow. Let me outside – let me inside – outside please– now back inside – can I go back out now?” If you don’t give them what they want, most of them will eventually decide they really didn’t want that anyway. No big deal. “I thought I wanted to be petted, but since you’re not paying attention to me, I will grouse a bit and then go take a nap” Cats never think, “Yesterday she only petted me forty seven times so she owes me fifty three strokes today.” They rarely keep track of our owner approval rating. Cats never worry where their next meal is coming from. It will appear. They know that. Even if they don’t know that, they don’t worry… they hunt. In the moment. “I am a lion, I’m hungry, I will go find food.” Do lions think “Oh my God, what if there isn’t a gazelle that’s slow enough for me to capture and I don’t get to eat today and then tomorrow the gazelles don’t come this way and then by the end of the week I will be emaciated and my skin will get all saggy and gross … oh my God!!” I don’t think so. The members of the biological family Felidae are very good at being in their own skins, which is something many humans find difficult. Many of us don’t like our skins, because we think they’re too thin, too short, too old, too wrinkled, too sick, too tall or too fat. Maybe someone else was unkind our skins in the past, or said mean things about how our skins look… and now we hate the bodies we are in. Cats have no such problem. They love their bodies. They delight in stretching, curling up, and sprawling out with no sense of shame or embarrassment. They emit satisfied purring noises when we stroke and massage them. Cats fully enjoy and accept their physical body, and totally experience the joy of the moment! What cat do you know who hides their delight… or their disdain? Ever try to feed a cat something it didn’t like? Did Boots stand there for five minutes considering the offering, trying to decide whether to turn up his or her whiskered nose? Hardly. There is absolutely no way for make a cat do something they do not choose to do. They have their own minds – and honor their own desires. A bit narcissistic? Yes! Finicky at times? Definitely. But still, a great metaphor for the idea of knowing what we want and honoring our own right to choose for ourselves. Not only do cats not worry about the future and feel good in their bodies… and they are also honest with their feelings in the moment. As they say in psychological circles, their affect matches their emotion. Happy cat… big purr, sweet meow, rubbing sensuously against you leg. Pissy cat… arched back, low growl, hiss or that semi-yodeling caterwaul they do when they’re threatening to smear some lesser cat all over the sidewalk. Their affect equals the event… and once again, they are entirely in the moment. At one time I had eight of these mindful creatures. Now my cat collection has dwindled to 2 – a 14-year-old gray, orange and tan tortoiseshell with a beautiful checkerboard face – and her 13-year-old orange tabby daughter. Mama is a sweetheart pet by day, and a ferocious feline adversary by night. She can hold her own against cats twice her size. In 14 years of being an indoor/outdoor cat, she has never had a wound from battle. Daughter, on the other hand, is a moody little sissy who rarely ventures outside the cat door. Mom and child do not especially like each other, so they have certain rules of conduct they follow. Daughter likes to find mom minding her own business and then instigate a hissing and spitting match. Mom will not miss an opportunity to show her daughter who is really the boss. But the fur rarely flies – except the stuff that is left by a damnable natural act called “shedding.” My cats do not seem to mind any of this. If there is an opportunity to have a little mother/daughter row, they do so with whatever degree of energy they wish to expend, and then go back to doing whatever cat thing seems best to them at the time. There is no forethought or afterthought. There is no judgement about that “horrible out-of-control daughter” or that mother who isn’t nurturing enough. Why clutter your brain with such machinations when you can be eating a saucer of delectable pork entrails and chicken by-products or curling up on top of your mistresses’ new spider plant? Life it good… and if several times a year enough fur falls out to make another complete creature, what difference does it make? “Don’t Worry – Be Happy.” This is the mindful theme song of the cat. We Homo sapiens could learn a lot from the felines around us. Each minute of their day comes and goes without all the fuss and bother we place on the moments of our lives. Each day is a new opportunity for joy. Wouldn’t it be life changing if we could develop the kind of adoration for ourselves that our cat friends have? Wouldn’t it be something if we could be truly content with a warm safe place to sleep, enough food to keep our stomachs from growling, a clean litter box, and someone to cherish us unconditionally when we chose to let them? Total mindfulness – total enjoyment of the moment. What a life! It is good to be a cat. Just ask one… they’ll tell you. “Stroke me for a while – give me some of that tasty stuff in the little can – let me outside – inside – outside – can I come inside now, please? I’ll just push this stuff off the top of the dresser, throw up in your underwear drawer and then curl up on top of your favorite wool sweater. I have no problems. I am at peace. I am living in this exact moment. I am cat… hear me purr!” Dedicated to Miss Pris (pictured above),Tribble, Reebok, Mouse, Tiger, Dexter, Noodles, Wednesday, Luna, TOO (The Other One) and all the other wise and wonderful felines I have known and loved!