Putting Out The Cats

Cats are God’s coolest creatures. They are, and they seem to know it. Because they are so cool, for some of us who have cats, there is this yearly debate that goes on concerning whether or not to allow them outside.

Outside is the great world that cats long to live in, the place they are born to dwell. It is the place they can chase bugs and mice, and other creatures you would rather they ignore, such as songbirds and rabbits. Outside is also the place of coyotes and automobiles, which are almost always lethal to their small bodies when they come in contact with them. Thus the debate we have over them, even though we live on a quiet side street, and in town where preditors rarely come.

Cats are fearless, and gaily unafraid of life. They don’t worry about the future, nor do they reflect of the past. They live in the eternal Now, and they live life to the full, and in the moment. For whatever they do, they do it with all their catty wisdom and might. But inside, where there is no action, they seem to retreat into long naps and idle play.

We have, ah, hmm, ‘several’ cats at our home. We are not their owners. Nobody owns a cat. We are their benefactors, and friends, and after a few years being around them, we have come to understand our place in their brief lives. You might say we are soft touches, that they somehow know about us, for it seems we have more than our share of these ‘helpless’ creatures, who come into our lives via one avenue or another, mostly as newborn kittens or as famished strays.

The cats in our house range in age from under a year old to some ancient and unknown age. Having them all in the house, it is interesting to watch how the new ones are assimilated into their ‘family,’ and how even the littlest ones seem to know the rules without thinking about it. More interesting is how we are also accepted into their lives, for when we are, they become the most affectionate of all God’s creatures.

Ours cats are continually around us, and I notice this more as I am always home now. They love to lay asleep at our feet, or beside us on the desk, and they make fastidious and excellent bed warmers.After all, we are the food-bringers, and the providers of free scritches. Its funny that they never show gratitude or thankfulness to us for what we give them, but they are unfailingly polite at all times. Cats are also never condescending at all, but for the moments we are in their presence, they bestow freely their affection and trust.

Because they are so lovable, and loving, and because we know well the dangers of the Outside, we hesitate this time of year, when they cry to go out. If we keep them in, they do not seem to pine. They just sit in the window, or on the floor in front of the sliding glass doors, and watch life go on out there, sort of like cat TV. You can see it in their faces and in their eyes as they watch a bird or butterfly or a neighbor’s cat freely moving out there. Sometimes they even ‘bark’ at those free creatures outside, as their tails flick back and forth with a mind of their own. You just know that if they were out there, they would sprout wings and fly, or become invisible and be the great stalkers they can be.

So, do we let them out? Or do we give them a life-sentence of window watching? Every year, we do this mental dance, for every year one or two of them don’t come back, falling victim to life out there. There is great pain for us then. Sometimes we know what happens, but most of the time we will never know where they went, or how they died. But the ones who live out there, and who luckily don’t meet something lethal, they return each night for their supper, and for sweet rest on our comforter or couch.

But you can see it in their dreams when they sleep. In their dreams, they are ever Outside, playing, living, and unafraid of Life, come what may. I guess its time to let them out. My wife and I seem to be the only ones who know how to worry. We are the ones who are fated to think of the future and remember the past, and in that regard, cats are the ones who know how to live, and to live in the one place where life is, Outside.