The Cat's Meow

Our house cats give us endless hours of entertainment as well as pain in the butt type behavior. Sometimes we sound like a house for the insane, occasionally screaming out, "NO!" "Stop!" "Don't!" "I'm gonna kill you!" and other such terms of endearment one speaks to their pets.

 But we love them. They are each as individual as they can be, which is astounding. Other cats I have owned (ha) have been as different from these as they were from one another.

I remember reading that the 'big' cats are the lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards. Other wildcats may be just as big, but they are not in this category because these four roar and do not purr.

All other cats, big and small, purr.

All totalled, there are thirty-six wildcat species, at least at the moment. DNA testing keeps changing that number.

I have seen lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards. They were in zoos or circus acts. I also saw ligers once on a safari ride. These poor cats look rather like wanna be lions, with partial stripes and partial manes.

Makes you wonder what the parents were thinking...

I guess, in reality, somebody somewhere just wanted to prove or accidentally proved that cats can intermingle and mate.

To that I ask, have you ever heard a female in heat?

What male cat could resist shutting that up, whatever the cost to the species?

I have also seen Bobcats and  mountain lions in the wild, and a black panther (that accidentally got loose) at the circus. Thank God they cornered him quickly, that was one angry animal!

There are also, at the moment, eighty domesticated breeds.

I cannot imagine how you could make eighty cats in the domesticated category look so different from one another that they would be considered their own breed.  I mean, eighty? Wow.

Having said that, the three breeds we have in our home are quite different looking from one another. Frost, a white American short hair (mutt) has thick hair that feels sort of like a crew cut when you pet him. Eli is a white Maine Coon. He has three different layers of fur, and feels like silk when you pet him. He is longer, taller and bigger boned than Frost. His ears are bigger and tufted. his jaw is much more square. His tail is as long as his body and very fluffy, whereas Frost's tail is fairly short and slim, like a whip.

And Mimi? She's short, cobby, with semi-long hair that feels fuzzy when  you pet her.

They sound different from one another (and our two Maine Coons sound different from each other), and act different in personality.

I figure Lily, who was a queen in a cattery, probably produced at least fifty kittens in her life there. And I think that is probably a low estimation. Are any of them just alike? I somehow doubt it.

So, if God can make this one little thing (big thing, if it's a lion) so different from its litter mate, yet so much alike (have you seen a tiger play with a ball?), it's no wonder we are so different from one another, yet so very much alike.

The next time you see a cat cross your path, whether it's a domesticated tabby sitting in someones yard or a Bobcat sitting at the edge of the wood at dusk waiting to hunt, remember they are very much alike.

Only different.