yowl (warning: many nested parenthetical asides.)

[dragonlady7]

tomcat outside is yowling.

took me three or four yowls before i remembered that I am not at home and Snick is not outside bragging about his mouse or rat or rabbit or owl or weasel or what-have-you.*
Actually I was somewhat more confused than that and thought it was Cupcake.

Who died 11 years ago.

On summer nights he would come to the kitchen doorish area (large side porch on east side of house. my bedroom is -- was, last week mom and dad moved the remaining bedroom furniture out to make it some sort of records-storing room; i've been informed my crap's in boxes in the garage-- in southeast corner. thus, under my window) and sing to boast that he had killed something.

Cupcake was a dainty little cat but when he felt like yowling he could be quite loud.

It was always quiet in Melrose, in that there were never cars (dead-end road), or neighbors (closest was 1/4 mile), but in the summer it was riotously loud, what with crickets, cicaidas, cats, coyotes, and assorted other creatures. (Holy cow, check out my alliteration. And oh yes! Cows! That one even alliterates. [Also there were sheep, chickens (whoa, another one!) and grasshoppers and dogs and spring peepers and tree frogs and foxes and racoons and bullfrogs and the like.])

Dunno. When does where you actually live become "home" instead of your parents' house forever being "home" in your mind?


*(Yes, he has actually brought home at least one of each of those. We were quite startled about the weasel but moreso about the owl, which we don't think he'd actually killed, given that its neck was broken and it was, well, as big as he was. It probably hit a window and then he nabbed it. It was an endangered species [saw-whet? i forget]. We brought it to the museum but they couldn't take it because we couldn't prove we hadn't killed it. Dumb. It lived in our freezer for a while and was the source of one of those You Had To Be There jokes that remains funny to this day, when Katy said "what's for dessert?" and Mom, peering in the freezer, said, "Well, there's owl," and Katy said, "...Owl what?" And there was a lengthy pause, and then she said, "Oh, owl." And if you had been there, you would be laughing just as hard as I am at the moment.)

No, it's not really a good sign when I start wibbling on about Melrose, but it's not a bad sign either.

Comments

[silverwerecat.livejournal.com]

tomcat outside is yowling.

Better outside than inside. I have five of them, and my three-legged boy in whining all day long about, well, something.

And let me tell you how much I love Cupcake. He was so much like my Lugh! Same colourings and, from what I read about him, probably of the same temperament as well. Here's Lugh's web page (http://www.geocities.com/tashenubaste/lugh.html) (in serious need of updating) if you want to see for yourself.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Oh my! He looks like Cupcake, you're right!!

Cupcake was very white, his whole body was white, but he had a hat and a ring-tail.

He was such a good cat. he was just... good. he wasn't a big squishy silly cat. He was a very affectionate hunter, was quiet and well-behaved, never yowled, meowed only when it was warranted and held his tongue at other times, only occasionally got cabin fever (and never scratched us when he did), and was a loving and devoted father to the kittens we accidentally let him have. (Whoops. Back then they said wait a year before neutering. Now? They say 4 months nowadays.) My father respected him immensely.

He did scratch the living heck out of my sister, who, as a toddler, carried him around by his head a lot. Mom and Dad never blamed him, and Katy never really did either. (She was too young to hold a grudge. And one cannot fault a feline for self-preservation.) She did get cat scratch fever, however, which is a real disease-- high fever from low-grade infections from multiple shallow dirty skin abrasions, usually caused by pet feline in distress. The doctor was amused, once they got the fever down: apparently it's rare.

So, a self-respecting, self-contained, well-behaved, modest cat, with great hunting skills (he killed a rat his own size when still a kitten) who almost always ate what he'd killed, wasting little, and didn't make a fuss about things that didn't need a fuss. We've never had another cat like him. He was a gem. If less cuddly than some. (Very much an on-his-own-terms cuddler, and he drooled if he got too lovey.)


But I've probably told you all that before. I didn't know Lugh was a prizewinner! (Although I've always loved Lugh the god, whose stories are among the best of the Tuatha de Danaan.)

[silverwerecat.livejournal.com]

Oh my! He looks like Cupcake, you're right!!

You can't believe how much they are alike. Wait until I get a new scanner.

Cupcake was very white, his whole body was white, but he had a hat and a ring-tail.

Lugh is EXACTLY like that, except he also has a small orange spot near his tale. He's also a compulsive groomer.

He was such a good cat. he was just... good.

Lugh is exactly that. He has never hissed or attacked any of the other cats - not even the vet. When I took him for some blood tests, he let the vet shave his arm and draw blood without so much of a mew.

Times like this my faith in reincarnation is strengthened. Or, by some capricious Fate, cats of that coloring have "good" genes in them. Who knows?

She did get cat scratch fever, however, which is a real disease

Sigh... I know, I've had that. From a stray cat, though. Fortunately, now I know the homeopathic remedies to prevent and/or cure that.

Although I've always loved Lugh the god, whose stories are among the best of the Tuatha de Danaan.

I've always preferred Ceridwen - the whole death/reincarnation issue, you see. But I found Lugh one day after Lammas, so...

May Eru bless Cupcake's soul, wherever he is now.