I lived with a cat once, she belonged to my husband when I first met him. Emma & I got on OK, but I wasn't sad when she went to live somewhere else - she was happy to go too - she never forgave us for bringing a schnauzer pup into the household. She lived a full and happy life in a family with three other cats and a dog which knew its place in relation to cats - ie much lower!
Cats intrigue me though, and I've written many poems about them, trying to get inside the feline mind. I feel this poem Pussycat, Pussycat is the closest I've got to understanding the whole thing, but cat lovers may disagree. I've known a few cats as friends (perhaps casual acquaintances is truer), and, as I said, I've lived with a cat for a couple of years. As far as I'm concerned though, cats, like God, move in mysterious ways.
I've written and self-published a book about gardening from a dog's point of view, and some people have suggested I should do one for cats. I can only say my knowledge of cats isn't deep enough to do the job justice. I know about the many and varied ways dogs garden, but I don't know how cats deal with the gardening issue. I'd love to read that "gardening tips for cats book" - but I'll have to leave the job of writing it to someone else.
Dogs are my friends, I understand how their heads work. Cats are something else entirely. The closest I get these days to living with a cat, is living with a few Pharaoh Hounds, which, I'm told, have many cat-like traits. They don't like to get wet, they sometimes clean their faces with their paws, they sometimes consider themselves to be above humans in their scale of importance. But our Pharaoh Hounds retain their canine loyalty, and mostly they feel I am the boss, unlike cats I've known or known about.
That's why I'm not a cat person. There are Cat People and there are Dog People - viva la difference!
