The Literary Cat #3
My Literary Cat
‘Abby The Tabby’
“If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then a cat is the diagram and pattern of subtle air.”
–Doris Lessing, On Cats
NOTE: I’m not sure Fat Abby is air given shape–unless you are talking hot air balloons. She is a beautifully marked and very sweet brown and white patched tabby, without a brain in her pretty head, I’m afraid. She only knows one trick: how to find the food bowl. But that one, she has mastered completely. Consequently, she resembles a long-haired basketball when waddling around the house, and nothing I do seems to fix the problem. She’s made it nearly 13 years, though, so I have hopes her excess weight will not cut her life expectancy down by much. And she can still move fast when she wants to. I recently saw her go from the floor to the top of the porch screen in mere seconds, while in pursuit of a lizard who had foolishly come inside a house with four cats and two dogs, all of which would gladly make a snack of him.
Bookin' It 
She is beautiful–I once had a brainless tabby too–she was so helpless and sweet.
LikeLike
Thanks, Alice. She really is a nice kitty, though her hygiene could be improved. (We sing a lot of verses of “Smelly Cat” when she waddles by). Luckily, she mostly sleeps in a corner somewhere, not bothering anyone, until she gets hungry enough to go visit the food bowl. She weighs over 20 pounds now, which for her height is a LOT. More than two and a half times what Murphy weighs!
🙂
LikeLike
A wonderful quote from Doris Lessing. I wish I had the time to read one of her novels. Maybe when my thesis is done and dusted.
Nice to meet another one of your (literary) cats!
LikeLike
Hi, Francois. I have one more living cat to add to this series of quotes, and then I shall be starting on Cats Who Have Gone To That Big Litter Box In The Sky.
😀
You have important priorities right now. And good for you! The novels will be ready when you are. Thanks for visiting today.
LikeLike
What a place to look forward to going when you die!! hahaha Marsha 🙂
LikeLike
Hey, I’M not planning to go there, you know. Just the cats. Me, I’m planning to go someplace more along the lines of “That Great Garden In The Sky That’s Filled With Beautiful Roses, Sweetly Singing Birds, and Tons of Tall, Dark and Handsome Men in Tight Jeans.” I mean, why not? Sounds Heavenly to me. Mark will, of course, be over in “That Great Spa In The Sky Where The Hot Tubs Are Always Bubbling, and The Waitresses Are Clad in Diaphanous White Gowns.” We will wave at each other and raise our glasses high.
😀
LikeLike
hahaha!! Just considering the poor cats that might be headed to heaven! I wasn’t suggesting that humans would ever want to go to cat heaven. Actually what you describe as cat heaven, every dog I’ve ever known WOULD LOVE to go THERE!!! Kitty litter – gourmet!!! hahaha 🙂 ML
LikeLike
OH, yeah. My dogs would love to go to Kitty Litter Box Heaven. That’s why OUR cats have a litter box on stilts! Seriously…Mark made a low table too high for the dogs to jump up on, and the litter box sits on that, in the utility room. Otherwise, they would be raiding it all day long. Stoopit dogs!
I’m going off now to think about MY version of heaven, though. I’m still pleased with my idea.
😀
LikeLike
Are you serious – not about the kitty litter boxes, but that your husband is Mark? MY first husband’s name was Mark!!! I suppose we have the same birthday, too!!! I’m sure we will see each other in heaven. And we will both be slim and in perfect shape as well. Now, have you ever seen the Twilight Zone in which everyone at age 19 chose one of 4 body styles and was surgically changed into that body? The glamorous body styles were enhanced for long life, but everyone had to wear name tags since they all looked alike. Interestingly, it didn’t stop bullying!!! M
LikeLike
What a beauty she is!
LikeLike
Thanks, Kathy. She really is pretty. If only she were cleaner and leaner.
😀
LikeLike
She’s pretty! I think from her expression that she knows you’re talking bad about her, though…
LikeLike
Possible. But it will take her years to figure out if that’s a good thing or not! I’m tellin’ ya, she’s a few slices short of a loaf, Caitlin.
😀
LikeLike
Very funny. We have two outside kitties about the same age who probably weigh half that!!! Yours is gorgeous. I was going to suggest that she just looks fat because of her fur, but 20 pounds is a lot of fur!!! 🙂
LikeLike
Yeah, we used that fur excuse for a long time, too. It sort of falls apart when you want to move her off the couch, and discover you need two strong men and a fork lift!
😀
LikeLike
hahaha!!
LikeLike
Dear Marcia
Unfortunately, my blogs are no more. The deadline for my master’s thesis is a lot closer than I had thought. Blogging is wonderfully addictive. However, this means that I procrastinate doing thesis work and instead I blog and read blogs (Seems to be a way of dealing with the immensity of a thesis, as blogging is instant satisfaction). So I was harsh with myself and deleted my blog. Please remove cat geo wilde from your list. 😦
Hopefully, we (Gwendolen and me, that is) will return to blogosphere in June/July with a new blog.
First we have to tackle this thesis.
I hope you understand
All the best and send my regards to the literary cats.
P.S. if you want to, you can add me on facebook (just to keep in touch): http://www.facebook.com/francois.olivier.509
LikeLike
Aw, I’m sorry to see your blog go away, Francois. It had the makings of a very nice place to visit. But priorities are priorities, and your thesis certainly should take precedence for the time being. You probably could have left your blog up, and just gone back to posting on it when ready, but maybe that would have been a lot of temptation.
Good luck with your thesis, and I’ll be watching for your return when the time is right. I’ll be glad to add you on Facebook, but I have to confess, I spend almost no time there. Still, it would be nice to keep in touch now and then.
My best to you and Gwendolen, and don’t forget to give her a pat from me every once in a while.
🙂
LikeLike
Marsha,
Ran out of room under your response, so answering you in a new “box.” Yep, my hubby is Mark. M & M’s, we are. What a coincidence. It’s a good thing we spell our names differently, or no one could tell us apart!
😀
Somehow I missed that Twilight Zone. I thought I had seen every one there was, multiple times. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it. Sometimes one of the networks runs a day-long Twilight Zone festival. It’ll pop up there, for sure.
Oh, yes, I will be slim when I reach “That Great Garden in The Sky That’s Filled With Beautiful Roses, Sweetly Singing Birds, and Tons of Tall, Dark, and Handsome Men.” Also younger. Much younger. And clever and witty, so that the Tall, Dark, Handsome, and Long-legged Men–I did mention I like long-legged men, didn’t I?–will be falling all over themselves to spend time in my presence.
Sigh. Fantasies–they make life so much more interesting.
😉
But lest you worry, Mark and I will be celebrating our 27th anniversary tomorrow, on Valentine’s Day, and we are still going strong. So a few fantasies never hurt anyone. That’s my opinion, anyway.
Have a happy Wodin’s Day!!
LikeLike