|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you have visited a friend or a relative in London and have been stuffed with too much food, you might like to take a long walk to feel better. You may be lucky to spot one of London’s brigade of fat cats staring down at you from the window of a house or a flat! Window cats are as regular a feature of London as are the ivy-covered houses there. You can come upon them anywhere at all, and they are always a pleasure to meet. Even if you are there for a short holiday of 10 to 15 days, you can come upon a white cat, a black and white one, a gorgeous tortoise shell with five colours or even a stunning Persian sporting silver grey fur or an orange and gold fur jacket, sunning on a window seat and looking out at the world. The cats are either busy cleaning up and washing, or arranging their paws in that special way they have, tucked under their chin, which adds to their grace and glamour. While at first they may give you a suspicious look and worse, a glare, they are easy to please and being often bored and lonely, are happy to make friends if you have the time to chat them up. Once they have caught on that they are being spoken to by a cat lover, they blink, which is cat language for "Hello how are you this afternoon?" They remind you of what Mark Twain said about cats: "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat." How true. This particular charcoal charmer seen in London was corpulent, as most London cats are, and was sitting snugly alongside a pot of shimmering pink orchids, which added glamour to his black and white jacket. He was watching the turbulent traffic, the screeching of buses and cars, crowds rushing by, and quite clearly seemed to be meditating about the mysteries of living. Or maybe just wondering if there would be fish or tuna for dinner that day. Perhaps he was glad to be out of the clattering mayhem of an overcrowded London street, crammed with May’s tourists disgorged by two nearby Tube stations. Or he was gloating over the fact that the world is now recognising how powerful is the ability of a cat to relieve stress when it is petted. Cats make excellent pets for the elderly and are being increasingly used in hospitals and nursing homes to comfort and calm the most distressed and depressed patients. The Cat Protection League is now recommending homoeopathy to treat many cat ailments and is a boon for cat lovers as this finicky animal is very hard to medicate. Window cats seem to give us the most sound advise: sleeping through 18 hours of each day might be one of the wisest and cheapest ways to happiness! And when you suddenly begin to miss home and your own cat faraway, some synchronicity will enable you to suddenly meet a window cat who by some mysterious mini magic wafts you home with its generous helping of those awesome purrs of tenderness.
|
|||
|
|
|||
