THE FOUR CATS OF GATTINA ...funny stories about my cats

    DIARY

This is the picture that I carry always with me. It's like "wash and go" only here I have three in once. Doesn't take much room. So what happened the last days ?

Pookie moved from my bed which she squats since 3 years to the new sofa in my husbands office. and sleeps there. But as a caring cat to her food furnisher she comes during the night in my room jumps on the bed and verifies with her paw on my face if I am sleeping well, while purring softly in my ears. Unfortunately she chooses 3 am, when I sleep like a baby to check on me. And when she is sure that I am still alive, then she returns without a noice back to her sofa. And I turn in my bed and try to fall asleep again.

Arthur too changed his usual napping post. He now sleeps under my computer desk, so I nearly put my feet on him because I didn't see anything and now I have to work with my legs besides the table.

Kim is mostly in the garden watching, but not hunting, she has such a little mouse heart that I am sure she is afraid of both birds and mice.

Lisa as usual spends her days sleeping somewhere, nobody knows exactly where, but if one of us dares to put a foot in the kitchen she arrives running as if the devil would be behind her, from nowhere and claims for food. This cat is a very good actor, somebody who doesn't know her could believe we would never feed her.

How did I come to a cat ?   

Cats for me as a child or even later were cude animals to pet and that was it. When I was 23 a girlfriend of mine had a cat and I found this funny and liked to play with her. Maybe that once I dropped the words "If I had a cat ..." but I really don't remember.

So what a surprise that on my birthday my girlfriend put in my arms a black little furry wool ball with two yellow spotlights, pointing up ears and an upstanding little tail. For once in my life I was completely speechless. Of course I found that very kind, but what should I do with that little thing ? I still lived with my parents and they would never accept a cat or something else. They loved animals, of course, but ... So I took the little thing with the accessoiries which went along such as litterbox, litter, food put everything in my car and drove to another girlfriend who lived alone and asked her if she could keep the cat until I found another solution. I didn't know anything about cats, their character nothing. It was completely newland to me. So what I did I spent my lunch hours with the little thing which finally I named Piccola (which means little in italian). Piccola, found immediatly the way to my heart, even so at the beginning I was sometimes a little afraid of her.  I didn't know anything about  cat language. But that stopped quickly and we became complices.

I took her with me everywhere, shopping, dancing (she waited in the car) to friends on the beach on holidays ...when I think it over today I don't know how I managed that. Piccola went on a leash or was sitting on my shoulders and  on the beach she ran behind me. But we still lived separated. The day my girlfriend had to move out, I had enough. I took Piccola and her belongings went to my parents and said : "Or you accept her or I move out !" I could say that, because I earned quite well my life and could easily find an appartment. But at that time (1965) a girl had to stay home until the charmant prince took her away. So for their reputation my parents agreed to the following condition :

The cat has to stay in the basement. With the result that Piccola used her Opera voice and she had a VOICE worse than a couple of siamese together, so I quickly went down, carried her up to my room put her in my bed and early in the morning carried her down to the basement and put her in her basket.

When my parents got up, Piccola was sleeping in her basket opened an eye on my parents who declared that everything in life was a question of eduction.

My father and I went to work. When I came home Piccola was sitting on the windowsill in the kitchen, washing, and my mother near a nervous brakedown. Piccola had used her unique voice for an hour in the morning and my mother gave up she couldn't stand "the voice " anymore and let her go in the kitchen.

The next day Piccola greated me in the staircase. She had used her voice again and sitting in front of the kitchen door she had given a personal concert for my mother. Conclusion,  she was allowed in the garage, the staircase and the kitchen.

After that when I came home in the evening, I found Piccola in her basket in the living room. My mother sighed and told us that it was impossible to keep her out of the living room when she was inside. My father mumbled something about a weak character and then watched Television. Of course it was out of question that Piccola used the armchair or the holy sofa.

Not long after that my Piccola slept peacefully in the armchair and gave me a satisfied glance. And then it happened what she probably had in mind since the beginning, she landed up on my fathers knees who petted her happily.

That was the beginning of a long lasting life together.

to be continued ....

 What cats teach themselves :

- Always sleep on the human at night so that they cannot move arround

- Get enough sleep during day time so you are fresh for your nocturnal games

- When you are hungry, meow loudly so they feed you just to shut up

- Always find a good patch of sun to nap in.

- When in trouble just purr and look cute