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Is there actually such a thing?
When I first moved to Spain in 1992 the last thing on my mind was getting a cat, since my living situation at the time was rather precarious and anyhow, I hadn’t had a cat since I was 18. But it turned out that some friends I’d recently met were wanting to get rid of their 2-year-old siamese girl because they were about to have a baby and – very stupidly – thought Lua might get jealous. So I ended up adopting Lua and she was the weirdest and crankiest thing on 4 paws that you’d ever want to meet. But we grew to love each other – a lot! And when she died of cancer in September 2004 I was totally heartbroken.
Meanwhile, I’d kept one of her four kittens that she had while we were still living in Salamanca – Sunny! And later, when I moved to Sevilla, I took in a street cat that I ended up calling Azar, which means ‘luck’ or ‘happenstance’ in Spanish.
Here is the whole story in case anyone is interested.
So for many years I had three cats living with me – now I just have the two boys. Ex-streetcat Azar has turned out to be a total weirdo, but very lovable in his weirdness. He is, in fact, the only cat I’ve ever met that has a sense of humour – he truly enjoys playing tricks on us humans and then sits back with a ‘who me?’ innocent look on his face. Sunny, on the other hand, is a total dog. He has a real doggy personality – he’s always waiting by the door when I come home, he greets all visitors and tries to make them feel welcome. At the other end of the spectrum is Azar who ‘pretends’ he is afraid of everyone so they’ll pay extra attention to him.
So I’m just wondering… has anyone ever had a ‘normal cat’? I’m not even sure what this would mean. I guess one that doesn’t play tricks on you or act like a dog, for starters . . .
I don’t think there’s any such thing as a “normal” cat, just like I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a “normal” human being. What is normal, after all?
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Okay, I think I agree with that. But then why do we all say our cats are somehow ‘weird’? Compared to what?
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Compared to a cat that doesn’t surf the net?
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Honey, you just have to keep your credit card in a safe place so he can’t order in smoked salmon and asparagus from the Corte Inglés online.
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And for those who don’t already know, that’s Azar sitting behind Nog’s laptop … the sneaky little thing. I’m convinced he changes shape during the night, which is the only explanation for him being able to reach the hanging foliage in the bathroom. Even after I cut back that pothos by at least 18 inches.
But reach it he does, though he seems to prefer the asparagus fern (which is even less ‘reachable’) and then quite spectacularly throws up all over the place, usually around 3am.
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