Cat on the Lap

We found our current cat about 4 years ago, gaunt and on her last legs, trying to catch a mouse in our garden.

Our previous cat had passed away about 2 years before and we were commited to being cat free for the rest of our lives. That commitment just couldn’t hold up when we were forced to see the pathetic, scrawny, beautiful, blue eyed cat outside our patio door for days on end.

At first I just put a little dry cat food on the garden wall for her to find. I thought I could feed her and she would get stronger and go away. Big mistake with any cat. “Feed me once, I am yours forever,” is a well known cat mantra. I had forgotten.

She was a very frightened cat and would hang around in view until we stepped outside, then she would cower in the bushes. Little by little I got her to come closer by putting food on the wall closer and closer to where I was sitting. Finally I put some of the food in the palm of my hand and she cautiously came over to me. I held myself perfectly still. She took a bite of food, then took a bite of my hand.

“Well, that does it,” I said to my husband. “We have to keep her now to see if she has rabies.” The bite wasn’t severe and it barely broke the skin but I wasn’t taking any chances.

Over the next few days I finally got her to come up to us and hang out on the deck with us. I still wasn’t letting her in at night. I should explain here that my husband is, through no effort of his own, a ‘cat whisperer.’ Cats adore him. They hear his voice and they come running. Our foundling cat was getting stronger and was now starting to demand food and attention. At night she would sit outside our bedroom window and howl until and I went outside to calm her. It wasn’t me she wanted. It was my husband. I would allow her to sit on my lap and she would keep meowing and looking at our bedroom window. She would also thrash her tail, giving me quite a beating. If you know cats, you would know that tail thrashing is a sign that a cat is angry and you should give them room and just leave them alone. Well, she planted herself on my lap, thrashing her tail and any effort I made to get her off my lap resulted in me getting bitten. Not skin braking bitten. Just a tight pinch kind of bite.

After about a week of my getting very little sleep so I could tend to the cat outside, I finally let her in the house. It has been about four years now and she’s still in the house and still likes to sit on my lap, thrashing her tail, looking lovingly at my husband.