The Logic of Cats

I tend to think that animals think about things the way that we do, only they are not as smart, and they will never figure out some things, and they might be able to do things that we can't, like figure out who is on the other side of the door by taking a sniff and also occasionally discover someone has cancer by the same means.

I do not expect them to know everything. I do not expect that dogs know when we leave Monday morning we are going to work or to school, and that going to work pays for the dog food, and that we get the dog food from the store, etc.... I do think that on some level the dog knows that it is Monday, or something like that, because after a couple of days of not having the weekday routine it is now back, and we go to work or to school or whatever. They can't know that we are going to work, but they have figured out that we go somewhere on a regular basis, and that we usually come home from that place at a certain time and all of that.

So I would also think that cats know a few things about cars. They don't necessarily see them the way that we do. I think that most cats do not ride in cars on a regular basis, and do not think of them as a means of transportation, or if they have figured out that part that the transportation is usually to a place that they do not want to go, like the vet. To a cat, a car has more practical purposes. It is something that can be climbed on for a look around, or maybe something to be climbed on to reach something even higher up, or something to sit on because it is warm, or maybe something to take a nap on.

So I realize that the fact of people using cars for transportation is mostly irrelevant to a cat, as cats do not often use them for transportation, and on those rare occasions it is usually transportation to someplace that they do not want to go. But I would think that cats are at least aware that people do use the cars for something, that the cars are not specifically provided by people for cats to use to climb on. I would at least think that cats have noticed that cars are not entirely stationary objects. While cars are often found parked in driveways and on the sides of streets and such, sometimes the cars are missing from their places in driveways and such, and cars are also sometimes seen rolling away from the driveways and moving up and down the streets and such as that. You would also think that the cats would notice that when the cars are moving or are about to be moved from driveways and such, that people are in the cars when this happens, and that they might have gone so far as to figure out that people make the cars move.

Well, maybe figuring out that people make cars move is to much, but they should have at least figured out that people know when the cars will move and that they get inside the cars just a bit before this happens.

It would therefore not be a good time to climb up on top of the car just after people are seen getting inside the car.

We went to my brother's this weekend for the usual, though we decided to drive there due to the fact that it had been raining and there was still mud and puddles of water here and there. We watched some TV and had a visit with my brother and Mean Kitty. Mean Kitty has been declawed and is a lot of fun to play fight with, except that one can never entirely be sure that she is just playing. And then we were leaving, and I forgot something and went back inside the house.

Mean Kitty is not supposed to go outside, and is certainly not permitted to be outside when it is getting dark.

I was aware that Mean Kitty had followed me to the door, but she rarely shows any interest in actually going outside, she just likes to have a look outside from the safety of the door. So at one point I was aware that there was a cat behind me, and then a few seconds later I saw that there was a cat in front of me walking around on top of the car, and then finding a good spot on the car for a nap.

I had a moment of panic, thinking that I had let Mean Kitty out the door. But the door had closed behind me, and there was Mean Kitty looking through the glass. On top of the car was a grey cat I had never seen before. It had a collar, but no tags.

My husband was already in the car. Not only had the cat seen my husband get in the car, but the cat then spent some time on the hood of the car looking at my husband through the windshield before continuing to climb onto the roof of the car. I am not sure why the cat would have thought that this car was a good place to settle down for a nap, considering that the cat had probably never seen the car before, and even if she had she would have known that the car doesn't stay in that spot for very long, and certainly is about to be moved from that spot now that people were getting into the car.

The grey cat was friendly enough and didn't seem to mind being picked up, though it was probably not entirely happy that the main reason for being picked up was to be moved from away from the car. My brother came outside to see what we were doing, and he didn't know whose cat it was, though he thought he had seen it around and maybe it belonged to someone on the street behind his.

The grey cat now had the attention of three people outside the house, plus a certain Mean Kitty watching from behind the glass door. The two cats looked each other over, and I expected a lot of noise from Mean Kitty, as Mean Kitty doesn't like other animals, or even other people much, except for my brother. But they both seemed quiet enough and just looked at each other, then the grey cat went back to exploring and looking at the people outside.

Well, I had long ago decided that I cannot have a cat or a dog in my present circumstances, and that was even before the current financial problems. Otherwise, I might have taken the friendly cat home with me, since there were no tags on the collar. We drove away, and my brother went back into the house. I hope the cat has a good home and went back to it.

I hate my life. And I can't even have a cat.