My cat Gerry communicates with me. He loves his (fake) mouse. He doesn't really play with it much during the day, but in the late evening, he starts carrying it around in his mouth, doing this meow/cry thing. When I'm sitting on the couch at night, reading or listening to a podcast or e-book he brings the mouse by, and drops it at my feet. I will oblige, by picking it up, and giving it a toss (and sometimes, giving a little fake scream after saying "ew!, a mouse!").
Lately I've noticed he's leaving the mouse during the day in obvious places. Gerry's not there anymore, but the mouse is (got tired of waiting?). Leaving it in places like the foot area of the couch where I was sitting, on the floor beside my bed where my feet hit the ground each morning. It is a daily thing, and it often gets moved by Gerry to different places as the day rolls along.
One day, my son and I got a bucket out to wash a bike from winter storage, then I dutifully brought the bucket inside. The bucket sat in the kitchen for a day, empty (I'm still grieving the recent loss of my mother, so many tasks started are unfinished. I've succumbed to celebrating a task started and half finished. I celebrate the activity the did occur, not what didn't). The mouse was left right in front of the bucket.
Another day I got up from typing away on my computer. When I type, I let my slippers fall so I can dangle my feet as I sit on our bar height dining room chairs. When I returned, the mouse had been dropped dead centre in the right foot of the slipper. It made me smile. The cat is truly communicating with me.
Isn't that how we all communicate, really? We drop each other hints. A little nudge. "You ready to play?"; "Can we talk?"; "Can we connect?".
I have a friend that often mentions he notices people are nicer to their animals than to humans. It's just because animals are easier to love, so we just start there. The cat just wants to play, it's an unconditional love. It doesn't involve judgement, or criticism (not that I know of!) It's gentle, it's pure, it's love. We can practice this with our animals, to learn how to do this with our fellow humans.
I'm one cat away from being that crazy cat lady. They are all rescued. I have a need to rescue (or, I did). I've switched in lately to observing. Observing what I have, as opposed to what I don't have. Observing what is good, instead of what is not good.
Observing what is (clearly a neighbourhood with stray cats on the loose for years).
And right now, I have a cat that wants to play. And be with me. And have fun.
That's what we are here for.
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