The Cat Mirror

Here is a quote by Winifred Carriere about cats: 'The cat is the mirror of his humans mind, personality and attitude, just as a dog mirrors his humans physical appearance.'

We have four cats in our household, so we have mirrors all over the house! Our three guys (and one gal) each have their own personality and attitude, quite independent from us, though. The eldest of the troupe, 'Ms. P' (short for Ms. Parker, from the TV Pretender series) has by far the most attitude of the group. She tolerates, but very little. She is very space conscious, especially her space! If her mood so suits her, she will growl and take a swipe at any of the other cats who stray either inadvertently or accidentally into her space, where her space is at that time. She takes no guff from anyone, including us. When she has had enough, its enough. Stop now or risk the consequences.

The next two in line, are the brothers, Otis and Clark. From the same litter of orange Tabbys, Clark got the classic tabby circle on his deep orange side and Otis, a kind of light orange, almost yellow did not. They are as different as night and day. Clark was playful as a kitten and has not lost a bit of his talent as he grows. His most spectacular stunt we call the wall trick, which he uses to show off, I think. Or, maybe its just happiness welling up inside him that finally just erupts in cat creativity! He starts by just standing near a kitchen wall and looking up the wall (maybe he is picking out a target spot). Then he suddenly jumps up the wall, tags it with his front feet, pivots and comes back down to the floor. Then of course, in true cat fashion, walks away as if nothing in the world happened.... but he knows ... yup, still got it!

Otis on the other hand, has no repertoire of unusual cat skills. His chief skill is that of sheer speed and invisibility. If we have guests over to the house, Otis is invisible. We tell them that we really have four cats, but can not prove it. Otis will not be seen. He is just too nervous. He is likely to become our oldest cat because he is very cautious. And as for speed, he outruns danger. If we are sitting, say watching TV or some relatively quiet activity, then start to sneeze, Otis (and Clark) have left the room before you get to the 'Cha' in the Achoo. Otis' main defense is his speed. He can easily outrun the rest of them. And because he is so slight (compared to the others), he can run much farther than the can. He easily does two laps around (inside) the house without trouble. He just tires them out.

Tucker is the latest in our gang of cats. He's got attitude. He bites. Since he was little, you can hold him for a while, but then he gets bored or something and bites. So you drop the little bundle of joy to the floor. He wins. He attacks the brothers and gets his bites in. But not Miss P. She outweighs him greatly and simply does not tolerate his attempts to engage. But he is not deterred. He tries to engage her, though to this date has not had any success.

So do cats mirror their guardians? Maybe, maybe not. Cats are cats after all. That will not change, nor should. We are who we are. We just need to keep discovering what that is. If cats are indeed mirrors of us, then it behooves us to use that mirror whenever we can. Some of the things we see might surprise us, but that's OK. It would be a rather dull place with no surprises!