housecleaning and cat whispering

Oy, the hair and the dirty clothes! Monday morning housecleaning is underway. I can't go out to the store until I have clean clothes and the coffee is giving me the energy to clean the rest of the house while the clothes wash and tumble.

When Lisa was with me, I'd sweep several times each week. I've gone over a week now without wielding the broom, and there are hair clumps starting to collect around the edges. They must go.

Lisa called me a "cat whisperer". People say that cats won't come when called the way dogs will. My cats come to me. They go for walks with me. But I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that I speak the language of felis catus better than most folks do. The same goes for dogs. Dogs love me. I'm a dog magnet. When I see a dog I can go into dog mode and communicate with them. Facial expressions and head angles make a big difference. Body language is important from head to toe.

I turned our semi-feral cat, Jack, into a gentleman. When I moved in, he wouldn't let anybody pick him up. I started by carrying him only a few inches off the ground. With time I was able to get him to let me pick him up and hold or carry him. His behavior mellowed overall with time because I could communicate with him on a rudimentary level.

The cat and the dog are very different beasts with very different personalities and languages. When I talk to a dog, it is like talking to a child. When I talk to a cat, it is more as intellectual equals. I don't know why. I noticed the difference some time over the last year and wondered about it for a while. I think that it is just because of their differing personality types. A cat just seems to be more logical, while a dog is emotional. You may not always agree with a cat's logic, but the cat knows that it meant to do that. It had its reasons.