Photographers, artists, poets: show us PERSPECTIVE.
I suppose it is all a matter of how you
look at it. In my original form, as a human, I just found it a normal garden,
nothing special, a place where seeds find a way to grow and a place where, as a
human, I pull them out again. Now I see it all with other eyes, thanks to my
felines. They decided it is now a cat’s life for me and I just have to get on
with it. Thanks cats, I think I would have preferred to remain a human.
I woke up this morning and felt an irritating itch behind my ear, so I raised my back leg, the right one as the itch was on the right ear, and gave it a scratch, feeling my claws finding a path to an unknown object to expel from my fur. Huh! Just a minute, what am I thinking?
“No problem Mrs. Human, or shall I say welcome to the fold.” The voice in my head originated from Tabby, one of my felines.
“Uh, Tabby, something is wrong here.”
“Of course it isn’t Mrs. Feline, you are now one of us. Nera and I with a positive meow from our apprentice Fluffy, decided it was time for our Human to discover what it is like to exist as a feline at the mercy of a human. We had a word with Bast, our big boss somewhere in an Egyptian corn chamber, and he waved his paw and now you are a feline. How does it feel Mrs. Feline?”
I looked at Tabby, but she was a blurred picture in front of my nose, so I took a few steps back for a clearer picture.
“You see Mrs. Feline, that is a feline problem, we are short sighted. Think about it the next time you place something in front of our noses, give us time to focus.”
“But Tabby, I do not remember this all happening.”
“Of course not, Mrs. Feline” Nera the chief feline arrived. “Bast works his wonders during sleep time.”
“Oh I see”, but I did not really see at all.
“What’s that?” I suddenly heard a rustle in the grass and noticed a long tail disappearing between the grass stalks. Before Nera or Tabby could answer I was off as fast as all four legs could carry me. I could feel the call of the hunt. Scents filled my nose, appetising scents, and I saw the tail disappear into a hole in the earth. I was fast and had my paw behind this moving food ration in the hole.
“Aww” and I pulled my throbbing paw out of the hole.
“One of the first rules of a mouse hunt, Mrs. Feline, do not put your paw in a mouse hole, especially if the mouse is being pursued and escapes They bite the paw that follows. Mouse rule No. 1.”
“So how do you catch them Nera?” thinking ask a silly question and probably I receive a silly answer.
“You wait, not just a few minutes like the human impatient way of doing things, but sometimes it can be a matter of human hours until the mouse appears. Then you pounce and trap the mouse between the front paws. After a while he is dead and then the fun begins. Nothing like the tins of tuna fish, or vitamin pellets, but real flesh and blood. Forget your vegetarian ideas Mrs. Feline, you are now a real feline and you eat something that used to walk and breath.”
Perhaps I still had a remainder of human brain cells, but this feline logic did not really appeal to me. I was still learning it seems.
“Nera, I feel tired, is there somewhere I can sleep?”
“Now that is a question of priorities” answered Nera.
“How does that work?” I asked innocently, not expecting a positive answer: this time Fluffy came to my assistance.
“I think I will have to advise you here Mrs.Human Feline. I am the
junior member of the feline family, so the third most comfortable place for
sleep is for me. Now you have joined the fold, you will have to make do with
the fourth place on the feline sleeping ladder.”
“Which means?”
“You see that pile of earth over there in the corner?”
“You mean the one next to the plant where you mark your territory?”
“Exactly”
“No way”
“Mrs. Feline” spoke Nera the feline in charge “you have no choice. Either you sleep where we tell you to or….”
“Or what?”
“You feel the shapness of my claws and I give you a nice loud hiss so that you can breathe in my sweet breath when I do it.”
I curled up, closed my eyes and tried to ignore the smell of the marks from my felines as I slept on the pile of earth next to the marked territory. I realised you do not argue with a chief feline, or her pack.
And so the day continued. By evening I was allowed to eat a portion of vitamin pellets, when the other felines were finished of course. At night I was taken on a tour of the territory and when morning arrived I was even qualified to fight over the remainders of the mouse we caught. Nera told me it was an old mouse anyway and she let me have it as a compensation for my first day as a feline. Tabby told me Nera only likes tender mouse flesh and could no longer get her teeth into the older mice.
So that was my first day as a feline and I am glad to say my last, up to now, although you never know what goes on between that Bast guy and my felines. I noticed that when Nera gives a long look at the tuna fish can, it means an extra portion otherwise a feline voice in my human brain asks me how I would like to spend another day as a feline, but this time with a feline fight for territorial rights included with Rusty, the ginger tom that lives next door. It seems he is the King Feline that claws a notch in his feline entrance every time he wins and believe me he has a lot of notches on his cat flap.
I woke up this morning and felt an irritating itch behind my ear, so I raised my back leg, the right one as the itch was on the right ear, and gave it a scratch, feeling my claws finding a path to an unknown object to expel from my fur. Huh! Just a minute, what am I thinking?
“No problem Mrs. Human, or shall I say welcome to the fold.” The voice in my head originated from Tabby, one of my felines.
“Uh, Tabby, something is wrong here.”
“Of course it isn’t Mrs. Feline, you are now one of us. Nera and I with a positive meow from our apprentice Fluffy, decided it was time for our Human to discover what it is like to exist as a feline at the mercy of a human. We had a word with Bast, our big boss somewhere in an Egyptian corn chamber, and he waved his paw and now you are a feline. How does it feel Mrs. Feline?”
I looked at Tabby, but she was a blurred picture in front of my nose, so I took a few steps back for a clearer picture.
“You see Mrs. Feline, that is a feline problem, we are short sighted. Think about it the next time you place something in front of our noses, give us time to focus.”
“But Tabby, I do not remember this all happening.”
“Of course not, Mrs. Feline” Nera the chief feline arrived. “Bast works his wonders during sleep time.”
“Oh I see”, but I did not really see at all.
“What’s that?” I suddenly heard a rustle in the grass and noticed a long tail disappearing between the grass stalks. Before Nera or Tabby could answer I was off as fast as all four legs could carry me. I could feel the call of the hunt. Scents filled my nose, appetising scents, and I saw the tail disappear into a hole in the earth. I was fast and had my paw behind this moving food ration in the hole.
“Aww” and I pulled my throbbing paw out of the hole.
“One of the first rules of a mouse hunt, Mrs. Feline, do not put your paw in a mouse hole, especially if the mouse is being pursued and escapes They bite the paw that follows. Mouse rule No. 1.”
“So how do you catch them Nera?” thinking ask a silly question and probably I receive a silly answer.
“You wait, not just a few minutes like the human impatient way of doing things, but sometimes it can be a matter of human hours until the mouse appears. Then you pounce and trap the mouse between the front paws. After a while he is dead and then the fun begins. Nothing like the tins of tuna fish, or vitamin pellets, but real flesh and blood. Forget your vegetarian ideas Mrs. Feline, you are now a real feline and you eat something that used to walk and breath.”
Perhaps I still had a remainder of human brain cells, but this feline logic did not really appeal to me. I was still learning it seems.
“Nera, I feel tired, is there somewhere I can sleep?”
“Now that is a question of priorities” answered Nera.
“How does that work?” I asked innocently, not expecting a positive answer: this time Fluffy came to my assistance.
“I think I will have to advise you here Mrs.
“Which means?”
“You see that pile of earth over there in the corner?”
“You mean the one next to the plant where you mark your territory?”
“Exactly”
“No way”
“Mrs. Feline” spoke Nera the feline in charge “you have no choice. Either you sleep where we tell you to or….”
“Or what?”
“You feel the shapness of my claws and I give you a nice loud hiss so that you can breathe in my sweet breath when I do it.”
I curled up, closed my eyes and tried to ignore the smell of the marks from my felines as I slept on the pile of earth next to the marked territory. I realised you do not argue with a chief feline, or her pack.
And so the day continued. By evening I was allowed to eat a portion of vitamin pellets, when the other felines were finished of course. At night I was taken on a tour of the territory and when morning arrived I was even qualified to fight over the remainders of the mouse we caught. Nera told me it was an old mouse anyway and she let me have it as a compensation for my first day as a feline. Tabby told me Nera only likes tender mouse flesh and could no longer get her teeth into the older mice.
So that was my first day as a feline and I am glad to say my last, up to now, although you never know what goes on between that Bast guy and my felines. I noticed that when Nera gives a long look at the tuna fish can, it means an extra portion otherwise a feline voice in my human brain asks me how I would like to spend another day as a feline, but this time with a feline fight for territorial rights included with Rusty, the ginger tom that lives next door. It seems he is the King Feline that claws a notch in his feline entrance every time he wins and believe me he has a lot of notches on his cat flap.
There are some aspects of being a feline that definately don't appeal to me!!
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