bel_gazou's comments

Pets and Music Revisited

24 Jan 2008 04:26 PM

i usually listen to Classical music and I have one cat in particular who seems to have a predilection for Mozart. You know when Mozart is playing on the radio if my little, old Tuxedo female has parked herself right in front of the radio. It never fails, if Mozart is playing on the box, Lefty will leap up and sit by the radio. If she likes the next piece, she'll stay, if not, she'll jump back down until the next Mozart piece is played.

The Tuxedo Cat: Dressed Up, But Where To Go?

21 Jan 2008 11:00 PM

I've had two "Tuxedo Cats" within the last 40 years. They are without a doubt, my favorites of all the cats that I've had. The first one, a male, who came into my life in the late 60's, had followed a friend home from a bar. He walked up the stairs and in the door with him. The friend took the cat back to the bar when he left. The next day when I came home from work, the same cat was waiting at my front door. I took him in and he stayed for the rest of his life, the next 15 years. He was very intelligent, funny, extremely affectionate, talkative and a superb mouser (leave a glass of wine on the table and he'd drink the whole thing - training, no doubt, from his stint at the bar). I've had several tabby cats and a black cat since and and now have a female Tuxedo Cat. She was born on the grounds of a hospital where I once worked. The administration had a trap set out to catch the family of felines to take them off the grounds. My girl carefully watched as each of her sibs were caught in the trap and let go several blocks away. She would go into the trap, take the food and run out. After she did this several times, the grounds crew gave up. Everyone wanted "little Blackie" as the nurses called her. Six of us cornered her under a staircase one winter's day and I was the lucky one to catch her. She's been with me for over 16 years. She's smart (at times I could swear that she can read my mind), sweet, also a good mouser and acts as my "nurse" whenever I'm sick, licking a fevered brow and snuggling close to keep me warm. She's incredibly patient and non-demanding.

Both of these cats, some 21 years apart and in no way related, are my absolute favorite cats of all time. Both were gentle, personable and smart.