Chill Out

Thursday night

My father-in-law and I were visiting a house filled with cats. It wasn't one of those foul-smelling houses in which one nutty person is overrun by hundreds of felines; this place was very clean, and the cats on the premises served a particular purpose. Stressed people made appointments to go there to see, pet and hold the nice cats in order to pick up on their calm vibes and relax. As the dream came to a close, both my father-in-law and I were surrounded by people contendedly holding cats in their laps. He and I were both reaching out toward a very large and handsome cat. It wasn't fat, just very long, with a luxurious striped coat. It looked as though it must have weighed 30 pounds. He was the king of cats, at least in that house.

*****

The last few nights we've seen some pretty interesting and strange documentaries on PBS about animal lovers gone overboard. Don't get me wrong; I love all animals, but these folks were a little "out there." One was about people bringing their pets to a ferret convention; the other was about a guy who spent half a millon dollars collecting turtles which he kept in his home. The idea of the house full of cats may have been inspired by the turtle guy.

Another thing that I read recently might have tied into this dream. There's a museum on the site of Ernest Hemingway's former compound down in Florida. Hemingway had some cats when he lived there that had a peculiar genetic mutation; they had six toes. Six-toed descendents of those cats are still there, and apparently they have the run of the place. Local authorities are saying that the cats must be removed because it's a museum and not a zoo, so there's a big brouhaha about it.

My father-in-law tends to be high-strung, and I can be that way, too, especially at the end of a hard week at work. It helps when I get home and sit down long enough for The Foo to climb up into my lap.

I wonder why my dad-in-law and I seemed to be competing for the attention of the same cat, and that it was the biggest and most handsome one of all? My wife says maybe that cat represents her.