Recently someone called us for a referral to an animal communicator that talks to cats. Since our past articles have talked about dogs, they thought that we did not talk with cats. Indeed we do talk with cats…and horses, goats, iguanas, geckos, snakes, fish, birds, etc!
Over the next few articles, we thought we’d talk about some of our experiences with cats and then with other animals.
We live with 2 cats, Nate and Ben. They are very different from one another. Nate was born to a domestic mother, and has been with our housemate all of his life. He is a handsome gray cat, and he is a very gifted healer. If Nate lays on some part of your body, it’s a good idea to sit still until he’s done, or he gets very testy. He is amazingly accurate in what body part needs work. Nate is also very verbal, and loves to stare at us intently or meow until we stop and listen to what he thinks we need to know.
Ben is a small brown tortoise shell cat who was born to a feral mother in Indiana. He conned Cindy into bringing him home when he was very tiny by falling asleep on her chest. He is named for the Star Wars character Obi Wan Kenobi and is a fierce warrior and hunter who takes his responsibilities very seriously. While we try to complement him on a regular basis on how good a job he does, he periodically makes sure that we know he’s on the job by bringing a sample of his work for our personal inspection. Ben has gifted us with [live] baby bunnies, birds, chipmunks, mice, and moles…inside the house. The latest gift was a live baby squirrel – at 4 a.m. – deposited on the bed.
Recently, Ben provided us with a very clear reminder about clarity in communication. One evening, during a client session, a black mouse ran across Cindy’s office floor. This was highly unusual, in that we very rarely have mice in the house [unless Ben brings one in]. She finished the session, and then explained to the mouse that it was NOT OK for it to live inside our house, that it was great for him/her to live anywhere outside of the house. Included in this communication was a warning that she was about to go and get a cat, and that it needed to leave on its own immediately. Cindy went downstairs, got Ben, and asked him to find the black mouse and to remove it from the upstairs. The next evening, our housemate was presented with a live black mouse in her bedroom [which is downstairs]. Ben did exactly what he asked to do – he removed the mouse from the upstairs. We weren’t clear in what we had asked him to do.
Needless to say, we had another conversation with Ben about taking the mouse outside the house. He did catch the mouse several days later and take it outside. Ben also reminded us that he did know how to do his job, but we had not given him clear directions.
We do want to note here that we are not recommending that people let their cats run outside, especially in urban and suburban areas. Both of our cats started as indoor cats, and learned on their own to use a dog door that we installed for an incontinent dog. We live in the country, and we see and interact with our cats daily. They spend most of their time inside, with a daily “walkabout” outside to patrol their territory. We carefully supervise them as we do have coyotes, hawks, Great Horned Owls, stray dogs, and other predators around. And of course, both of them are neutered.
Cats are not dogs. A very simple statement, but a very true one. Cats demand that we accept them exactly as they are, and honor them as such. In our next article, we will talk about the issues we are called most frequently about concerning living with cats. We hope it will prove helpful to all of our readers who are honored with living with a cat!
